It’s that fresh start season, “new year, new you” and all that jazz.

Everyone’s talking about resolutions, so you do too.

And then promptly forget about them, come February or March. By the time summer hits, all those good intentions have been long forgotten, and then fall comes and almost feels like…what’s the point? 

The holidays are right around the corner, so you might as well wait until next year.

Right?

And I get it. But I don’t buy it. Because what I’ve learned over the past 15 years of being super intentional with my goals, is that 90 days is actually a long time.

Long enough to make real progress on anything you want for your life.

Long enough to see real results, but still short enough to keep you focused.

Even in the midst of a busy season.

And I believe that you have the power to make this your best quarter yet. Not next year. Not when life gets less crazy. Right now. 

This year, we’re not limping to the finish line. 

So let’s dive in.

If you only know me from this Thinlicious brand, then you might not know that before I got super passionate about helping women lose weight and get healthy by healing your body, I spent many, many years helping women create better home systems, manage their time and achieve their goals.

I even had my own planner–the Living Well Planner–and related planning tools that I sold for ten years, along with a different planner for my business clients called the Quarterly Execution Playbook.

Suffice to say, I get pretty fired up when I start talking about setting and achieving goals.

I’ve been working in what I call “quarterly sprints” for over a decade, and yet it never ceases to amaze me just how much you can accomplish in one 90 day period if you have a solid process for figuring out what you want and then creating a plan to execute.

So to me, it doesn’t really matter whether it’s January or April or July or October–every 90 days is a chance to start fresh. 

And so today, I want to talk about what that actually looks like, from a totally practical perspective, and take a deep dive into the steps you can take to make this last quarter of the year your absolute BEST quarter of the year.

So I’m going to be walking you through my entire planning system—the same one that’s helped me stay on track for years, even when life gets absolutely chaotic. The same one that helped me build multiple successful businesses, but also helped me accomplish other big things, like writing 7 books and losing 49 pounds and paying cash for my dream house.

And while in this episode, I’m going to walk you through everything I do–from making my quarterly big picture plan, down to how I plan my days, I also want to invite you behind the scenes to watch me do it all in real time this quarter through something I’m calling the Finish Strong Project.

I’ll tell you more about it in a minute, but I want you to know that whether your goals are health-related, business-focused, relationship-centered, career-driven, or you just feel like you need a kick in the pants for getting your life together in general—this episode is for you. 

So let’s dive in.

The Inspiration Behind the Finish Strong Project 

And I’ll start by telling you exactly what inspired me to do this episode–and to create the Finish Strong Project.

Because like most good ideas, it was actually born out of a conversation with my friend Edie, who also happens to be the physician advisor for our TAS program.

We often chat on Friday mornings, as she’s driving to go see her grandbabies, probably because she knows there aren’t that many people who are ready to have deep business conversations at 6am!

But Edie was telling me about this Facebook group she’d started last quarter where she basically invited people to follow along with her planning process. 

She said it was the most fun and motivating thing she’d ever done—sharing the good, the bad, the ugly, the frustrations. Just real transparency about what it actually looks like to pursue big goals.

And something about that conversation instantly just lit me up. 

Because like I said, I’ve been teaching quarterly planning for years! 

I’ve had a planner company, created time management courses like Tame Your Time and the Daily Productivity Guide for Bloggers, and I personally use 90-day sprints for everything in my life and business.

But Edie’s approach was different. She wasn’t just teaching it—she was living it out loud and letting people see the whole messy, beautiful process.

That’s when I realized something. 

People sometimes think if you’re good at goal-setting, it must be easy all the time. Like you never have to readjust or recalibrate or deal with resistance. But that’s not reality, is it?

The truth is, even those of us who love planning still face the same human struggles everyone else does. We still have days when motivation is nowhere to be found. We still have to navigate busy seasons and unexpected challenges.

So I decided to create the Finish Strong Project—a private Facebook group where I’m going to take you behind the scenes of my actual quarterly planning and execution process. 

You’ll see how I prioritize when everything feels urgent. How I handle resistance when it shows up. How I adjust course when life throws curveballs.

But I’ll also give you access to the same planning tools I’m using–in fact I created a special planner just for this project that pulls it all together in one insanely cool place, so that you can be working on your goals right along side me.

And honestly, I’m SO FREAKING EXCITED about this whole idea that I can hardly stand it!

Because what I hope you’ll get out of joining is realizing how amazing it is for your life when you start implementing a really intentional planning rhythm.

It’s so transformative for your time, your energy, your motivation when you’re not dependent on waking up motivated every single day, but when you have rhythms and routines that work like muscle memory, you stay on track even when you’re not feeling it.

Because I’m setting my intention right now:

I want the final quarter of 2025 to be my best quarter yet.

Come January first, I want to be able to look back and say, “wow, I really crushed it.”

And then I want to use that momentum to make 2026 even better.

And I have a feeling you want the same thing. Who wouldn’t?

But let’s be honest—most of us tend to lose momentum as the year winds down. The holidays sneak up. Life gets busy. And before you know it, you’re limping to the finish line instead of sprinting through it with intention.

But not this year. 

This year, we’re going to finish strong.

By the way, if you’re reading this and wondering how you can join the Finish Strong Project, you can do that right HERE.

In the meantime, let me walk you through what my quarterly planning process actually looks like.

Understanding Quarterly Planning & Why It Works 

Because I looooove working in quarterly sprints.

It’s like the sweet spot for setting and achieving goals.

It’s long enough to make real, meaningful progress, but short enough that you don’t lose sight of what you’re working toward. There’s still urgency. There’s still that sense of “I only have 13 weeks to make this happen.”

Think about it. When you have a whole year to accomplish something, it’s easy to think, “Oh, I’ll start next month.” But when you only have 90 days, every week matters. Every day starts to feel important.

I’ve been using quarterly sprints for almost as long as I’ve been a business owner, and the results speak for themselves. 

But what makes quarterly planning truly powerful isn’t just the goals themselves. It’s about developing a rhythm that creates momentum.

Because motivation is fleeting. 

We all know that. You don’t wake up motivated every single day. That’s why you need systems and routines that work like muscle memory to help you stay on track even when you’re not feeling it.

And that’s exactly what we’re going to walk through today. Not just how to set quarterly goals, but how to create a planning rhythm that actually supports you in achieving them.

Because, like I always say, big goals don’t happen all at once. They’re only the result of small steps taken consistently over time. 

But sometimes developing that consistency takes practice, and that’s where having the right tools and systems becomes absolutely crucial.

Plus, there’s something energizing about the final quarter of the year. You have this natural deadline approaching—December 31st—and you can either use that to create urgency and momentum, or you can let it become an excuse to wait until next year.

Walkthrough of Your Planning Process

So now let’s get into the nitty-gritty. 

This is my exact process for quarterly planning, and I want you to really pay attention because this isn’t theoretical—this is what actually works in real life, with real challenges and real time constraints.

The first thing I always do is what I call a Life Score Assessment. I rank myself in five key areas of my life: Money, Home, Relationships, Purpose, and Health.

And for me, this isn’t about judgment or making myself feel bad. It’s just about getting honest about where I am right now. 

Because if you want to make progress, you first have to know where you stand.

I think ometimes we just feel stressed in general, but we haven’t actually pinpointed what’s causing that stress. We haven’t taken the time to step back and think about how we’re doing in each different area of our lives. This assessment forces you to do that.

It’s a pretty quick process—usually takes about 10 minutes—but the clarity it provides is invaluable. You might realize that your relationships are thriving but your health needs attention. Or maybe your career is going great but your home life feels chaotic. And until you identify where the real issues are, you can’t address them effectively.

Once I’ve done that assessment, I move into what I call a 90-day review. This is where I ask myself some honest questions about the past 90 days, but also about where I am right now and where I’m heading.

The questions are pretty straightforward: What’s been going well in the past 90 days? What hasn’t been working? What am I feeling really good about right now? What am I not feeling so good about? What am I excited about moving into this next quarter? What am I nervous about or anxious about?

This process usually takes me 10 or 15 minutes to go through this little worksheet that I have, and yet I get so much insight and so much clarity. Because we don’t often take the time to actually step back and do a real check-in with ourselves, do we? We just keep moving from one thing to the next without pausing to reflect on what’s working and what isn’t.

The combination of those two things—the Life Score Assessment and the 90-day review—usually gives me enough insight to start getting clear about where I need to go with my goals for this next quarter. And that’s when I move into identifying what I call my Five On Fire goals.

These are the five things that, if I accomplished them in the next 90 days, would create massive momentum in my life. Not ten goals. Not twenty. Five.

Because if you give yourself too many goals to focus on, you can’t actually focus on anything. Your brain gets overwhelmed, and everything starts to feel equally important, which means nothing gets the attention it actually needs.

But five goals? That’s manageable. That’s focused. That’s achievable.

Now, out of those five, I always choose one Wildly Important Goal—my WIG. This is the one thing that takes priority above everything else. The goal that, if I only accomplished one thing this quarter, I’d be thrilled with this one.

Then I put the other four goals in order of priority, so I’m clear about what comes second, third, fourth, and fifth. This might sound overly structured, but trust me—when life gets chaotic and you have to make quick decisions about where to spend your time and energy, having this clarity is everything.

For my bigger goals, especially my WIG, I use something called a Goal-Crushing Worksheet. This isn’t fluffy goal-setting. This is getting crystal clear on exactly what needs to happen.

The worksheet walks me through questions like: What exactly is this goal? How will I measure it? How will I know I’ve actually accomplished it? Why does this goal matter? What’s my real motivation behind it? What specific steps do I need to take? What could potentially derail me, and how will I handle those obstacles? What are the consequences if I don’t achieve this goal? And how will I celebrate when I accomplish it?

That last question might seem silly, but it’s not. When you plan how you’ll celebrate, you’re programming your brain to expect success. You’re making the goal feel real and achievable instead of some distant fantasy.

I don’t always do the goal-crushing sheet for every single goal if it’s something small, but for anything that’s significant, I try to fill out that worksheet because it forces me to think through all the potential challenges and roadblocks ahead of time.

What I love about this process is that it takes big, overwhelming goals and breaks them into manageable pieces. Instead of “lose 30 pounds,” you might have “establish a consistent meal planning rhythm” or “walk 4 times per week for 12 weeks.”

Instead of “grow my business,” you might have “launch my new service” with specific steps like “create the offer,” “build the sales page,” and “plan the marketing campaign.”

See the difference? The first version feels impossible and overwhelming. The second version feels like a project with clear action steps that you can actually wrap your head around.

When you get this level of clarity, your brain stops seeing your goals as these massive, intimidating mountains you have to climb. Instead, it sees them as a series of small hills you can absolutely conquer, one step at a time.

But setting the goals is just the beginning. The real magic happens in the execution, and that’s what we need to talk about next—how to create daily and weekly routines that actually move you toward your goals instead of just keeping you busy.

Because busy and productive are not the same thing. 

And if you’ve ever found yourself feeling overwhelmed but not accomplished, exhausted but not satisfied, you know exactly what I mean. You can be incredibly busy and still make zero progress on the things that actually matter to you.

That’s where having a planning rhythm becomes absolutely crucial.

The Power of Your Planning Rhythm

So what exactly IS a planning rhythm? 

It’s just regular habits that keep you consistently moving toward your goals, even when motivation is nowhere to be found.

I have a planning rhythm that includes monthly planning, weekly planning, and daily planning. Now, for some people, especially if you’re not used to it, this might feel like a lot of planning. But the reality is that planning saves you so much time. It prevents you from spinning your wheels. It prevents you from going off track.

There’s actually research that shows every minute you spend planning saves you 12 minutes in execution. And I can tell you from personal experience that this is absolutely true. In fact, I think that’s a low estimate.

Planning is NEVER a waste of time.

So let me walk you through my monthly planning first. This involves doing a little bit of self-reflection—not as intensive as the quarterly planning, but I like to identify my big three goals for the month.

Because the reality is that if you give yourself too many goals to focus on, you can’t focus on anything. So I always try to limit it to just three. These are the three things that I want to accomplish this month. Sometimes those three things could be a portion of maybe one of the bigger quarterly goals that I’ve set, or it could be a separate goal altogether.

Then I ask myself: What specific results do I want to create this month? This is kind of an open question, but it could be related to those big three, or if you have a business, it could be related to the results you want to create in your business, the amount of money you want to generate, or it could be related to relationships or just your overall vibe.

If we’re talking about the holiday months, it could be something like “I want to have an amazing Christmas with my family”—these are the results that I want to have this month.

The next question I ask myself is crucial: What has the potential to derail me this month, and how will I respond?

Just like with the goal-crushing sheets, this is such an important question. You need to be self-aware enough to know what tends to get you off track, especially in certain seasons. Different seasons have different challenges, and in October, I might be busy going to football games and trying to keep up with my daughter’s cheer schedule. But in November, it’s more about getting ready for the holidays. These are different things that have the potential to derail me.

I want to think ahead about what could go wrong and how I’m going to respond to that. How am I going to account for that? How am I going to be proactive about making sure that it doesn’t completely throw me off course?

I also mark out any important days for the month—birthdays, anniversaries, other commitments that I need to be aware of. I indicate any people that I would like to connect with, because as adults, it’s hard to maintain friendships when everybody’s so busy. So I’ll usually think about someone I haven’t reached out to for a while and make a note to give them a call or see if they want to do something.

Then I like to pick a monthly theme or inspiration for the month. Sometimes it’s a quote, sometimes it’s just a phrase that I want to repeat to myself, sometimes it’s a word—like a theme word for the month of what I want to be practicing. Sometimes it’s a Bible verse that speaks to me, and then I’ll identify the thought or belief that I’ll be practicing.

This comes down to work that I do on what I call “Resistance Repair.” 

It’s the idea that your thoughts create your emotions, which create your actions. So if you want to change your actions, you have to change your thoughts. And we have power over our thoughts. But you have to practice those new thoughts regularly.

So that’s the monthly part of my planning rhythm. But it doesn’t stop there!

Because I also do weekly planning. Every week, I use a little planning tool called the Weekly Wizard. 

It’s pretty simple—just a one-page sheet that I usually fill out on Sundays.

I start with doing a brain dump. 

This is something I do every week—getting all the things that are on my mind, all the things that I need to be thinking about, all the things that are on my to-do list that are kind of churning around in my brain, out onto paper.

The weird thing about life is that when you have all this stuff in your head, your brain can’t actually make sense of it. Everything feels equally big and equally important. It’s not until you get it out on a piece of paper that your brain can actually sort through it and start to prioritize it.

Once I’ve done my brain dump, then I will prioritize my list with my A tasks, my B tasks, and my C tasks. 

My A tasks are my must-do items, and this is really, really important—A tasks are only the things that are going to get you closer to your big goals. Your B tasks are all the other things that are important, but not related to your goals. These often feel more urgent than the A tasks, but you have to start training your brain to prioritize things that are going to move the needle.

Your C tasks are your would-like-to-do items—things you would like to do if you have time, but they don’t feel particularly urgent, and they’re not moving you closer to your goals.

After I prioritize my to-do list, I pick a big focus for the week just to keep myself on track. Sometimes it’s one of those must-do items on my A task list, but sometimes it’s just an overall theme—like if I’m in a launch week for my business, that might be my focus.

Then I take a few minutes to plan my meals for the week. I particularly like to do this on Sunday, and after I make my meal plan, I’ll go to the grocery store and get my groceries for the week so I’m all set up.

I’ve found, as a mom, as a business owner, and as somebody who cares about eating healthy, that when I take the time to plan my meals for the week, the week goes smoothly. 

And when I don’t, it’s chaos. 

I don’t feel good. I don’t end up eating well. It’s such a game changer for life in general, because your family is always going to want to eat dinner, and you are always going to want to eat dinner. 

A failure to plan is planning to fail, and that’s why so many people get off track with their health goals, their budget, their time management—everything.

So that’s the weekly stuff. 

But real results come down to what you do every day.

Daily Planning That Actually Works

So let’s talk about my daily planning rhythm, because this is where the rubber really meets the road. 

This is something I do every single morning—though you could also do it the night before if you’re more of a night owl and don’t like to get up early.

But I basically turn into a pumpkin after about 7 p.m., so I always do this first thing in the morning. 

It only takes a few minutes to fill out, but it really does make such an impact on my day.

I start by identifying what I call my One Thing. 

What is the one thing that I can do today that is going to make everything else easier or unnecessary? 

I always like to have a One Thing for the day—this is the thing that is going to be the game changer, this is the one thing that is going to make me feel like it was a successful day, this is the one thing that I absolutely need to accomplish.

Then I have, again, my A tasks, my B tasks, and my C tasks. My A tasks are my must-do items or the things that are getting me closer to my goals. The B tasks are my should-do items or the things that typically feel urgent but aren’t moving me closer to my goals. And then my C tasks are the nice-to-do items.

Using this process every single day really does train your brain how to prioritize and how to think differently about your time. It sounds so simple, but it’s incredibly powerful.

I also like to identify what a successful day looks like. If I can only get a few things done or one thing done, what does that look like? What does success look like today, and how will I celebrate if I actually achieve that success? Am I going to have a glass of wine? Am I going to take a long bubble bath? Am I going to watch my favorite show? Planning the celebration ahead of time makes the goal feel real and achievable.

My daily plan also has an hour-by-hour schedule, so I’ll usually jot down my time blocking and how I want to be structuring my time for that particular day. This is only semi-helpful on work days, because I also do time blocking on Apple Calendar, but I find it particularly helpful on my off days, because sometimes when I’m not at work, I can tend to be less structured with my time, and then I find myself sitting around scrolling on my phone, doom scrolling or bedrotting as my teenagers call it.

I’ll also jot down a reminder of what’s for dinner that night. 

It’s such a dumb little thing, but thinking about this in the morning is so helpful, because sometimes I’ll realize things like “oh we were going to have steak for dinner, but all the steaks are in the freezer, so I need to take those out this morning or they’re not going to be thawed out.”

The daily plan also includes space for what I’m feeling grateful for that day, and again, that thought or belief that I’m practicing—reminding myself of that consistently.

And from there, every day, it’s just a matter of working through that daily plan.

Simple in theory, right?

But not always quite as easy in practice.

Overcoming Resistance and Staying on Track 

Because the the truth is that no matter how good your planning system is, you’re still human. 

Which means there will be days when you wake up and the thought of working on your goals feels overwhelming. Or you’ll hit a setback that makes you want to throw in the towel. Or you’ll just have one of those days where your brain tries to convince you that binge-watching Netflix is more important than your dreams.

This is normal. This is not a sign that you’re broken or that the system doesn’t work. This is just part of being human.

But what separates people who achieve their goals from people who don’t is how they handle resistance when it shows up.

Anytime I realize that I am facing resistance or struggling in some area of my life and I can’t really figure out exactly what’s going on—maybe I feel dissatisfied or I’m feeling some discontentment or irritation, or I’m having resistance towards something that I want to be doing but for some reason can’t get myself to do it—I like to go through a process that I call Resistance Repair.

It’s really a simple process. First, I identify what the resistance is. What’s the thing that I’m resisting? What’s the thing that I feel discontent about? Just naming the situation—what is actually happening right now?

From there, I identify my thoughts that are related to the situation. What are the actual sentences being played in my head right now? Because anytime there’s a situation, we have thoughts about it. And a lot of times those thoughts are what cause the emotions.

So the next question is: How do these sentences make me feel? What are the thoughts that are playing in my head, and what are the emotions I’m feeling as a result? Is it making me angry? Is it making me scared? Is it making me lethargic? What is the emotion that I’m feeling?

Then I look at the resulting action. What is it that I am doing or not doing as a result? Because emotion is what creates action. If I feel scared, I might not do the thing that I want to be doing, or I might be doing something self-destructive instead—like eating cake for dinner instead of following my meal plan.

Then I have to think about what are the consequences of that action or inaction. If I’m eating cake for dinner, I’m gaining weight, and I’m not feeling good about my body, and I’m feeling sick and disgusted with myself. That’s the impact.

From there, I work on reframing. If these are the sentences that are currently being played in my head that are leading to these emotions, how am I going to change these thoughts? I actually write down what my new thought will be, because thoughts drive emotion, which then creates action. But you have the power to change your thoughts, so you have to decide what your new thought will be, and then practice that new thought regularly.

That’s why I give myself lots of opportunities to practice that new thought regularly in my planning process—whether it’s monthly, weekly, or daily.

But the beautiful thing about having a planning rhythm is that every day is a chance to start fresh. If one day gets derailed, it’s not that critical because you can always start over the next day. And honestly, that’s what keeps me on track because I know that big goals never happen all at once—they are only the result of small steps taken consistently over time.

The reality is that life doesn’t always go perfectly. You don’t always achieve every single goal or every single task that you set out to accomplish, but the effort is what compounds over time.

Another thing that I say to myself all the time is: Focus on the output, not the outcome. 

This really is another way of saying focus on what you can control. You can’t always control the outcome of the effort that you put in, but you can control the amount of effort you put in.

Building Momentum Through the System 

The thing that I love most about this entire system is that it creates momentum in and of itself. The process of planning and reviewing, combined with regular journaling to reflect on how things are going, keeps you connected to your progress in a way that maintains motivation even when the initial excitement wears off.

I have a lot of journal prompts that I ask myself throughout the quarter. I try to journal at least once a week and maybe more if I’m processing things. That reflection helps keep my motivation and momentum going because I’m constantly checking in with myself about what’s working and what isn’t.

But the real power is in the compound effect. Small, consistent actions taken daily create results that look almost magical to the outside world. But it’s not magic—it’s just the power of having a system and sticking to it.

Each week builds on the previous week. Each month builds on the previous month. And by the end of the quarter, you’re amazed at how much progress you’ve made because you’ve been taking small steps consistently instead of trying to make giant leaps sporadically.

That’s why I believe so strongly in quarterly sprints. They’re long enough to create real change but short enough to maintain focus and urgency. And when you string together several quarters of intentional progress, you create the kind of life transformation that people spend years hoping for.

The system also helps you celebrate wins along the way. When you’re checking in regularly and tracking your progress, you notice the small victories that you might otherwise overlook. And those small victories fuel your motivation to keep going.

This isn’t about perfection. It’s about consistency. It’s about showing up every day and doing the work, even when you don’t feel like it. It’s about having a plan that carries you forward when willpower fails.

And that’s exactly what I’m going to be modeling in the Finish Strong Project—how this system works in real life, with real challenges and real adjustments along the way.

The Finish Strong Group & What You Get 

I am genuinely so excited about this opportunity to take you behind the scenes of my actual quarterly sprint.

Because I’ve been teaching time management and productivity and goal-setting for years, but this is different. This isn’t just me teaching you a system—this is me living the system out loud and inviting you to follow along with the real, day-to-day process.

You’ll see my actual planning process in action. Not the polished, Instagram-worthy version, but the actual day-to-day reality of pursuing big goals while running a business and raising teenagers and managing all the chaos that comes with real life.

You’ll see how I handle it when things don’t go according to plan. How I adjust and recalibrate and push through resistance. You’ll see my frustrations and my wins and everything in between.

You’ll get access to every single planning tool I use, and all the stuff I talked about in this episode. The Life Score Assessment, the 90-Day Review worksheet, the Goal-Crushing worksheet, the Weekly Wizard, the Daily Do-It, the Resistance Repair worksheet—all of it. 

These are the exact tools that have helped me stay consistent for years.

But what makes this different from just getting access to a course or a planner is that you’ll see me using these tools in real time. You’ll see how I adapt them when life gets messy. You’ll see the thought process behind the decisions I make.

You’ll also have a community of people who are committed to finishing strong right alongside you. There’s something powerful about not doing this alone, about having accountability and encouragement and the shared energy of a group of people all moving toward their goals.

You can share your own goals and get support when you’re struggling. You can celebrate wins with people who understand what it takes to make consistent progress. You can ask questions and get real answers from someone who’s actually implementing the system alongside you.

And here’s a bonus I haven’t even mentioned yet—everyone who joins the Finish Strong Project also gets a ticket to my Ignite Your Best Year Yet event happening in December.

This is a virtual event I hosted two years ago that was absolutely incredible. People are still telling me it changed their lives, that they had their best year ever because of the clarity and focus they gained. I didn’t do it last year even though everyone was asking for it, but I’m bringing it back this December.

It’s the perfect way to set yourself up for success in 2026. So you’re not just getting the Finish Strong Project—you’re also getting equipped to make next year your most intentional and productive year yet.

The combination of finishing this year strong and then immediately diving into planning for next year creates this incredible momentum that most people never experience. Instead of limping across the finish line and then hoping January 1st will magically motivate you, you’ll be sprinting into the new year with clarity and momentum already built.

And listen, I priced this to be accessible because I genuinely want it to be a no-brainer for anyone who is interested. It’s just $47 to join the group. That’s it. For all the planning tools, the behind-the-scenes access, the community, and a ticket to an event that could transform your entire approach to goal-setting.

So like I said, the link is in the show notes. So get in there ASAP because it’s going to be EPIC. 

Honestly, I can’t wait.

Wrap-Up and Final Call to Action 

As we wrap up today’s episode, I want you to really think about something. What would it feel like to end 2025 knowing that you didn’t just let the final quarter slip away? What would it feel like to actually finish strong?

A lot of women use the busy holiday season as an excuse to put their goals on hold. They tell themselves they’ll start fresh in January. 

But what if you were different? What if you used this season as a catalyst for creating real momentum?

It’s not too late, and it doesn’t have to be perfect. It just takes consistent action and the right system to support you.

So whether your goals are health-related, business-focused, relationship-centered, or just focused on getting your life more organized and intentional, I hope you’ll consider joining me. Because it doesn’t matter what you’re trying to achieve–the system is the same.

The post Make Your Last 90 Days Count: The Real Secret to Finishing the Year Strong appeared first on Thinlicious.

Today we’re going to be chatting with Dr. Scott Sherr, a board certified internal medicine physician and expert in health optimization medicine, and a total powerhouse when it comes to cutting edge brain and body science.

And today’s topic is one that I honestly think. Every woman over 40 needs to understand, especially if you’ve ever struggled with anxiety, insomnia, depression, or brain fog, because the truth is a GABA deficiency might be at the root of all of it. We’re unpacking what GABA is, why most clinicians never even test for it, and why GABA supplements don’t actually work the way you think they do.

Plus how you can naturally support your brain through food, lifestyle, and science backed strategies. This is such a good conversation and I know you’re going to get so much out of it. So let’s get into it. Dr. Scott, thanks so much for being here today. I’m so excited to dive into this topic. 

Dr. Scott Sherr: I’m happy to be here, Ruth, thank you for having me.

Ruth Soukup: You are welcome. So let’s just start with the question I like to ask everyone. Tell us a little bit about yourself, who you are, what you do, and how you got to be doing what you are now. 

Dr. Scott Sherr: My name is Dr. Scott Scher. I’m a board certified internal medicine physician. I specialize also in a couple different things called hyperbaric oxygen therapy, health optimization medicine.

I like to call myself a conductor of all things health optimization really. Uh, my story starts off when I was just born as the son of a chiropractor, and so my dad is a chiropractor for 45 years plus now in Long Island, uh, in New York. And so I grew up in his office. I grew up very alternatively as a result of that.

Uh, chiropractors for, if your audience don’t know, they’re kind of the original integrative functional doctors that really looked at, at things outside the box and not that pharmaceuticals were the answer for everything. And so I grew up in his office. I grew up coloring in, getting adjusted in his front offices and in his adjustment rooms.

And then I grew up. Actually collecting money behind the desk when I was in high school. And that was the money that I got to use as spending money when I was, you know, in high school and in and in college, et cetera. So, um, I, I had a very alternative upbringing overall, but I ended up, I ended up deciding to go to medical school and I went to medical school after, uh, being at UCLA for undergrad.

I went to University of Maryland in Baltimore. And from there I decided I really wanted to do that because I, I really. Had this sort of high-minded idea that I could bridge the worlds between what I grew up in and the allopathic conventional world that I, that I knew a lot about. But I didn’t know a lot about really, that I thought, I thought I knew so much more than I did kind of deal.

But when I got to school, I was very much in culture shock in very many ways. And so I ended up going and doing my internal medicine residency, and from there I specialized in a couple different things. But in essence, what I did after medical school and residency was try to create a practice. That bridge, those worlds.

And I bridge them in a number of different ways over the years. Uh, initially that was in the world of hyperbaric oxygen therapy, which are these chambers that are for healing. But I created an integrative practice around that where I’ll use tools, techniques, laboratory, testing, other types of technology to create the best hyperbaric programs that I could for patients.

And then a couple years ago, in 2017, I trained in something called health Optimization Medicine, which is a foundational approach to health that’s focused on. Not just working on root causes of illnesses, but what we’re actually optimizing and looking for root causes of health. And so focusing on larger picture ideas.

And I work with clients all over the world on a kind of a, a foundational approach that involves looking at metabolism and energy and detox and, and things that are, but more focused on health rather than disease. And so now my clinical practice is kind of a, a combination of all of those things I work with.

People remotely here in, in, just outside of Boulder, Colorado. And I have a, a couple companies that have, that have been, that have kind of come out of the work that I’ve done over the years. Some in the hyperbaric space and some working on products and development that help people right now while they’re on the longer path of, of healing and optimization.

Ruth Soukup: I love that. So how does that like change the way that people come to you and find you if you’re dealing with optimizing health rather than addressing illness? I would, I would think that that is a very different mindset. In the people that you, you are seeing, are you still seeing both or like what does that look like?

What’s the difference between somebody who comes to you because they want to feel better, and what’s the difference between somebody who. Comes to you because they wanna like live longer and optimize their health because they already feel good and wanna optimize that. 

Dr. Scott Sherr: Yeah, it’s a great question. I think in essence it’s the same perspective for both types of patients, because the idea is that if you’re not very healthy, if you’re having a hard time with X, Y, and Z, you need to get your health in order.

Right. And then what I do that’s a little bit different is I don’t focus on just treating or looking at the symptoms and the root cause of the symptoms. The idea is that if you want to be healthy, you have to have optimized cells. Cells that are working well to make energy to detox on the energy you make.

You have to have a gut or a GI system that is not leaking and that has optimized levels of. Bacteria and, and, and things that are working for digestion and for, and for expelling and getting rid of waste and things like that. And so it, what I think it, the, the, the deal is that I acknowledge that people, and most people have something right that they have that they don’t like or they’d like to be better, but in essence.

I set the disease aside and I focus on optimizing their health. And that doesn’t mean that they don’t have the disease, it doesn’t mean that they don’t have the symptoms. But the cool thing and the beneficial side effect of optimizing health and focusing on that is that almost everything gets better in the process better.

And that’s, and so in the, in this, in the, and so I work with people that are elite athletes and that want optimization and longevity that are doing great. And I also work people that have cancer and that have. Chronic fatigue syndrome and and fibromyalgia and all those kinds of things in between. And so in essence, what I’m looking at, no matter the person is looking at their cellular health, their gut health, there’s no other specialty out there than ours.

It really focuses on cellular health, cellular medicine. There’s some new ones that are coming, but right now, if you went to like a functional medicine doctor, and I have lots of friends that are functional docs. They’d be looking for your root cause of your illness. They’d be looking for viruses or looking for, um, particular, you know, condition that you might have and try to diagnose you with something and that, and that’s okay.

Like, that’s important. But what I found over the years is if you just kind of jump the gun and start treating something like, like a good example is Lyme disease. If you start just treating Lyme disease without getting your foundational cellular biology in order, you’re not gonna get the outcome that you want.

And that’s gonna been my, the recurring theme in my. My clinical practice over the years is understanding that if you really want to optimize over the long term, you have to shift everything in for perspective and not just focus on the disease and the outcome as much as getting your foundation in order.

And by doing that, everything else. Gets easier going into a hyperbaric chamber gets easier. You know, going and for a run is going to be easier, everything’s gonna be easier, and even having a big piece of chocolate cake is, is gonna be easier to recover from if you are more foundationally optimized. 

Ruth Soukup: I love this.

This is like, you’re like a big picture thinker of health versus. Right, like traditional medicine is super myopic and only looking in specialties and and looking at one thing at a time. Yes. 

Dr. Scott Sherr: Hyperspecialized. Yep. Yes. 

Ruth Soukup: Hyper specialized. And then functional medicine moves down and moves like more into the middle.

And then there’s you big picture like, let’s not even focus on the disease. Let’s just focus on. The big picture of your overall health and everything else will fall into place. I actually really love that approach. 

Dr. Scott Sherr: Yeah. It’s, it’s a perspective that I didn’t come up with. Uh, a colleague of mine named Dr.

Ted Raso, who’s the founder of our nonprofit called Health Optimization Medicine and Practice. He created a framework in that we’ve been using now to train other practitioners to do the same thing. And I was one of the first people trained in it. And we have a seven module certification for practitioners.

And, and the key also, Ruth, is that. We talk about something called the Holo. Actually, I’m, I know you don’t have a recording of our shirts, what we’re wearing, but I’m wearing a shirt called Bion Hacking Here, B-I-O-N-T, hacking. And this is, this is a play on something called the Holo. The Holo is a concept that we are.

These organisms made of not just human cells, but of bacteria, fungus, virus, and all the inputs that are coming in from our environment. So we’re this whole organism. And what we do with our perspective is try to focus on that. You’re not just a person like an epi, like an epidemiologic study, but you’re a person in a population of people and then you’re getting treated that way.

No, you’re getting treated because you are you and all the things that make up you. And we can test those things now. Like that’s the cool thing about where we are. And so we. Like to think about the holo as our framework, which is the holo that is you, your holo organism. And the other aspect of it is that you don’t wanna be optimized for your age if you’re not 21 to 30 years of age.

That’s when we’re most optimized. And many of your listeners can remember being 21 to 30 and how easy things were overall and how resilient they were. And so what we do with our framework is we optimize. Nutrients, hormones, and all other measures between when you were 21 to 30 years of age. And so not just optimized for your age, whatever your age may be, but optimized when you’re most optimized.

When 21 to 30, you’re most resilient. You have the, it’s easiest to make a baby. It’s, it’s easy to recover from an injury. Like it’s easier to recover from a hangover for most of us, not me. I was never good at that, but some people were really, really good at it in their twenties and, and they sucked that at their thirties.

I’m good at that. You see, you must be high, have Irish blood or something like that. Um, I had an Irish, uh, roommate in college that can get so drunk and, and pass out in a hallway and the next day he can run a marathon. So, um. 

Ruth Soukup: Well, maybe not that good. 

Dr. Scott Sherr: Yeah, it’s a skill, but it’s also a dangerous skill as you know.

So, um, if you don’t get hangovers, but anyway, so most of us are pretty optimized around that time, so we move all your nutrient gut and everything, all these networks back to when you were 21 to 30. We look at you as a whole organism with all these inputs and everything that’s coming in. Everything’s going out, and, and that’s, that’s the perspective.

That’s a little bit different, a lot different than what you see out there. And, and that’s the perspective that I use in my clinical practice. 

Ruth Soukup: Very interesting. So, so walk me through that then. Like when somebody comes to you, what’s the first step that you take? 

Dr. Scott Sherr: So typically my first step is gonna be an intake, right?

It’s gonna be taking a history and that can be take a long time. I usually, it can take me like, I’m usually pretty quick these days ’cause I’m doing this for a while. But it depends on the person, it kinda where they’re at. But in general, I like to hear where people are, right? What’s going on in their life, what things are.

Wrong or not going right, or what their goals are. And so I have a lot of intake paperwork in that capacity. But once I get that, we set a lot of that aside initially, and then we focus on doing laboratory testing that’s looking to. Create that foundation. And, but the big piece here, and I think this is an important part for the rest of what we’re gonna talk about, is that what I’m also sussing out to use the cool word is that, is what is their autonomic nervous system balance.

And what I mean by that is that, um, you have two parts of what’s called your autonomic nervous system. You have your sympathetic nervous system and your parasympathetic nervous system. Your sympathetic nervous system is your fight. And flight nervous system. It’s one, it’s the one that makes you run fast if you’re getting chased by something or if you’re shocked by something, right?

Um, and then you have your parasympathetic nervous system, which is your rest, digest, detoxify, and heal nervous system. The problem though, is that most of us. Are running on sympathetic overload. We’re running, we’re running on the on switch all the time and don’t how to turn off. And so one of the major things I’ve found over the years working with people is that health optimization medicine and the framework is fantastic.

Let the laboratory testing and, and I can mention that and I will in a minute, but the big but is that I will not even go there if they’re under sympathetic overdrive because they, you can’t heal. You cannot recover. You cannot even see shifts in a lot of things ahead of time or working on laboratory testing if you don’t work on their parasympathetic nervous system.

And you know, I’m, I’m guilty of this too, when I was in medical school. We had shirts made that said sleep is for quitters. Right. It’s like, it’s the, it’s the American way. Like it’s the hustle culture you’re on, on. I’ll sleep when I’m dead, kind of deal. Right. But the problem is our body doesn’t really do very well when we’re always in sympathetic storm.

It’s sympathetic drive and, and this could be related just to. Being in medical school, it could be related to, you know, trauma. It could be related to stress, it could be related to relationships. Um, it could be related to poor sleep. There’s so many different things that fall into this. So even before doing some of the laboratory testing, um, I’m assessing somebody’s balance there overall to get a good understanding of how I can get in there and help them.

Right. Is it by doing laboratory testing right away, or is it by working on some of their autonomic? Nervous system balance before we even go that route overall. But then eventually I’m doing laboratory testing, looking at vitamins, minerals, nutrients and co-factors. Looking at heavy metals in the body, the gut hormones and all those things.

And then creating a full lifestyle behavior, diet supplementation protocol for them that we follow over time. 

Ruth Soukup: Okay, so what is the test that you’re doing for the nervous system specifically? How are you, is that what you get from the intake, from talking to somebody, asking them questions about how they’re responding to things?

Or is it literally you can check their cortisol or whatever other chemicals are in their body? Or is it a combination of both? 

Dr. Scott Sherr: So I’ve been doing this long enough that I know within about 30 seconds, typically when you’re talking to somebody. Yeah, it’s not that, I mean, once you’ve been doing this with.

What’s that to me? So that’s a good question. And actually I was trying to get a sense of this when we were first talking. Um, my sense, were you Yeah, well of course everybody, like I do this with everybody without thinking about it because I’m a clinician, right? There are some people that are more on the higher strung side, and that’s common.

Like people that are type A that are very, very organized, very detail oriented, they tend to be more sympathetically dominant, uhhuh than people that are more. You know, the type Bs like, like they’re more relaxed typically. They’re the second child or third child? Not the first child in general. Are you the first?

Ruth Soukup: Nope. 

Dr. Scott Sherr: Yeah. What, what’s your birth order? The fourth? 

Ruth Soukup: I’m the fourth, but, but my older sister’s six years older, so me and my brother we’re also like the kind of the tail end of the family. 

Dr. Scott Sherr: Yeah. Yeah. So we have 

Ruth Soukup: a little bit of oldest and a little bit of. Middle. 

Dr. Scott Sherr: Yeah, I gotcha. Yeah, so like when you have that many kids, I have four kids as well, right?

So like the, it’s a little bit different, but typically your, your first and second are very common, like your first born and second born. Typically. First is type A, second is more relaxed and has to go with the flow. Like by the fourth it can be like, you have to be so freaking flexible that you have to go with the flow.

Like, it’s like I had one friend of mine, a colleague that had four, he’s like, and he had four kids and he is a surgeon. He’s like, I don’t even know how the fourth one ate. They must have ate off the floor. I don’t remember how they got any food. So like, it can be like that. That’s pretty much me. Yeah, exactly.

So, um, and so it also depends on like sexes and, you know, male, female and splits. But in general, most of us are on the sympathetic side. Right. That doesn’t mean that, um, what I’m typically looking for, Ruth is not somebody that’s just mildly imbalanced from one way or the other. I’m looking for people that are so sympathetically dominant.

That, that they’re not going to be able to heal if we don’t do anything about that ahead of time. Right. And there are things you can do. There are some testing that I, that I do that I will use. Um, there’s a couple different easy tests to do. There’s one, um, that I use a lot, you know, HRV or heart rate variability, which is a test you can do.

Many people that have like wearables, uh, that’ll be one of the, the metrics that you’re looking at. Heart rate variability is a measure of the balance between your sympathetic co parasympathetic nervous system. Um, you can also do another test that’s actually very easy that a colleague of mine came up with.

Actually a number of people have come up with. It’s called the CO2 tolerance test. Basically, it’s how long you can hold your breath without getting stressed. Overall, the longer you can hold your breath without getting stressed. You actually have less overall sympathetic dominance as well, and you can train this over time actually to increase your CO2 tolerance.

And when you do that, you actually decrease your stress response when stressful things happen. And so hopefully, yeah, there are a lot of different ways you can do it. And so, but in essence for me, like if, if you were asking me for yourself, I would say you’re tilted on the sympathetic side, like most people like me and that.

Mm-hmm. You, you do know how to relax, but it takes, you know, practice and it takes intentionality to be able to do it, you know, compared to others that don’t know how to relax, right? That like, if you give them anything to relax, they actually get anxiety when they feel calm. And that’s, that’s the kind of person that I’m, I can tease out very quickly overall.

Okay. 

Ruth Soukup: Interesting. Yeah. Interesting. I’d say that’s an accurate assessment. 

Dr. Scott Sherr: Good. I’m glad I wasn’t too far off, but, um, I’ll give you that, 

Ruth Soukup: I’ll give you that one so we can move on. 

Dr. Scott Sherr: Okay. Cool. Cool. Yeah, so I’m looking at that parasympathetic sympathetic balance because if you are too sympathetically overdriven, like no matter how many supplements or how many therapies or any dietary advice I give you, it’s not gonna work most of the time or not gonna work as much as you’d like it to.

So, um. But then I’d also focus on metabolism. I focus on looking at your vitamins, your minerals, your nutrients, especially how well, how well you’re making energy overall. Because our mitochondria are the part of our cells that make energy. And we have a lot of them. We have actually the most mitochondria per cell are in ovaries and sperm actually.

And that’s because they create a huge amount of energy to make a baby. Actually, the eggs have the most by any of, of any cell in the body for women or, or men, of course. Um, but a huge amount of energy. But that’s also why fertility rates are going down, is because mitochondria so. Disturbed now overall and dysfunctional.

Um, the brain has a lot, the heart, the liver, musculoskeletal tissue, and there’s a lot of reasons why mitochondria don’t work very well overall. Um, toxins in our environment, stress, we talked about sympathetic overdrive as well as I just mentioned, infections, post infection, like post COVID, post Lyme, um, mold, um, you know, a lot of different things.

Um, insulin resistance. And so anyway, so what I’m always looking at is the mitochondria as a primary. Indicator of everything else, because for the mitochondria to work well, you need to have good inputs, like good things from your diet. You have to have good micronutrients. You have the capacity also to detox.

That’s really important too, because when you make energy, it’s like a gasoline powered car you make. Exhaust from your cells, your mitochondria, and you need to be able to balance that or neutralize that with antioxidants as well. So I’m looking at all of those things, um, with, with testing, and I’m also looking at the gut, the GI system as well because 80% of your immune system’s in your gut, and if your gut’s leaking and it’s not doing well, your brain’s probably leaking too and getting, allowing things in and your blood brainin barrier’s not doing what it’s supposed to do.

And so, um, the gut is super important there. And so I look at the gut, I look at. The, the metabolism. I look at food sensitivities and I look at hormones as well, but hormones are typically a little bit later because once you can nutrient and gut cellular optimize, oftentimes the hormones will get a lot better.

On their own in quotes here. Right. And so I have a hormone imbalance, but then my testosterone’s lower something, but then I optimize their gut, their exercise, and well, amazing, your testosterone’s better. You didn’t have to do something specifically for the testosterone. So that’s the perspective shift, really.

Ruth Soukup: Yeah. Because it’s all kind of interconnected, but you’re saying it all comes back to that cellular, cellular health. Mm-hmm. So you talk about something called GABA and Yes. That, and you called the breaks of the brain, but can you explain, explain this a little bit more, because I’m very, very curious about this.

Dr. Scott Sherr: Sure. GABA is also, the longer name is called GABA gamma Aminobutyric acid, and it’s a neurotransmitter. So neurotransmitters are these chemicals in our brain that send signals or they receive signals. We have receptors that grab them and then they cause various types of responses. And so our superstar neurotransmitters are the ones that everybody knows, like your dopamine, norepinephrine, serotonin.

These are the ones that everybody knows about, but actually. There’s two more glutamate and GABA that are your two primary neurotransmitters in the brain. They take up 80% of your brain’s neuro transmission. So the other ones your serotonin, dopamine, norepinephrine, other ones. There’s other ones as well. A much lower amount compared to glutamate and gaba.

So glutamate. Is your primary excitatory neurotransmitter. It makes you feel wakeful, it gives you motivation, it makes you feel on, norepinephrine does this as well in dopamine, but glutamate is your primary. And then glutamate in the brain gets converted into gaba. Your primary inhibitory neurotransmitter, it’s the one that relaxes you, that gives you calm, it quiets your mind, it helps you sleep.

Um, and so the problem is that if you’re on all the time. On, on, on that hustle culture, you’re depleting your GABA levels over time as well. And when you deplete your GABA levels, you have increased risk of depression, insomnia, anxiety, and a mind that just won’t stop because these are all symptoms of glutamate overload compared to that gaba.

And so I have a question for you, Ruth. 

Ruth Soukup: Yeah. 

Dr. Scott Sherr: Quiz question. Okay. How many thoughts do you think you have every single day? Not new thoughts, but just thoughts in general. If you had to guess, I can give you like a range. Is it a thousand? Is it 70,000? Is it 200,000 or is it 500,000? 

Ruth Soukup: High, like 200,000. 

Dr. Scott Sherr: So it can be that if you’re really, really stressed, but in general, on average you have 70,000 thoughts per day.

Ruth Soukup: Okay. 

Dr. Scott Sherr: That’s still a lot. That’s a lot of thoughts. Of thoughts, right? That’s a lot of thoughts. And so what I always say in, in relation to that is please don’t believe everything you think. Right? And if you have children that those that are listening, I have a 7-year-old now who doesn’t really understand the difference between real and, you know, make believe and real.

And so we have to have this conversation like, yes, hamburgers. You can eat, but hamburgers are not gonna eat french fries. Right. And like these, like little things like that. But that’s a thought. Right. And then he’s like, dad, what if this happens? I’m like, kiddo, don’t believe everything you think. Right. And we talk about this.

Yeah. And we go through that. But so, but if you have a brain that’s GABA deficient, the amount of thoughts can go up to 120,000 or more thoughts per day. And this is a mind that just can’t stop thinking about. Yeah. It might be the same thing over and over again. So you could be super anxious or super depressed and, yeah.

Because of all those thoughts, and so what GABA can do is give you the breaks back so that mind starts becoming more quiet. GABA is also the gate, GATE. It’s a gate, meaning that it prevents us from being overstimulated. It. We have so much information that’s coming in to us at all times. You know, body language when we’re on this conversation, you and I talking with micro expressions and everything else.

Yeah. But if you’re just in a commu, like if you’re just outside walking all of the environmental stimuli. What GABA does is it calms down and breaks that sensory gate, so you don’t get all that information flooding your system. And so if you don’t have enough GABA around, you can get overwhelmed so much easier.

So people that are listening, or do you feel overwhelmed often? Do you feel anxious? Do you feel depressed? Do you have a hard time sleeping? This all could be related to GABA deficiency because the breaks are not. Breaking, like you have a glutamate overload related to that excitatory neurotransmitter that’s overloaded compared to the GABA system itself.

Ruth Soukup: And so this is related to what you were saying about the nervous system before. Yes. Where your people are either in sensory overload or not. And if they’re not, they are in sensory overload, then your body can’t heal. Is that, am I put piecing this together correctly? 

Dr. Scott Sherr: Exactly. Yeah. So for me, when I’m working with somebody and I see this sympathetic dominance, right?

This over. Uh, just overactivation of the system. This is often a glutamate overactivation compared to the gaba, and so it’s one thing that I’m trying to do very quickly with people to try to help them balance that so that we can do the, the more. Called the harder work or the long-term work of actually optimizing their mitochondria.

Because if, if you’re already under so much sympathetic overload of glutamate overload in this case too, which is all the gall goes together, you’re not gonna be able to heal the mitochondria specifically, which is what I care about. And so, so 

Ruth Soukup: GABA comes. First. 

Dr. Scott Sherr: So for me, GABA does come first. So how do, 

Ruth Soukup: how do you fix, I mean, this is something that I’ve, I, I’m talking about health every day, and I’ve never heard of this before 

Dr. Scott Sherr: and that’s why I, I’m trying to get more information out there about it, because if you go to your doctor and you say that I’m anxious, I’m depressed, I can’t sleep, they’re gonna give you like an antidepressant, which you and I are not a big fan of.

Right. And we know that. Depression is not a serotonin deficiency. We’ve known that that’s very well, well understood. Now it’s multiple studies. You know, sometimes SSRIs can be helpful, but it’s not because you’re serotonin deficient. That’s not why they help you. The serotonin increases, you know, can be helpful in some people for short periods of time, but it’s not the root cause, it’s not the solution.

Oftentimes, this is a GABA issue and it’s because they’re deficient in it, because their stress and their, their whole system has just been on overdrive for too long. And so when I think about. Um, you know, everybody out there that’s listening that they’ve never heard about this, about this before, because we don’t have drugs in the, in the conventional world that are specifically, uh, addressing this.

Um, except for things like benzodiazepines, like Xanax and Valium and a, and, and things like Ativan or sleep medications like, um, Ambien or Lunesta. So these are all affecting the GABA system, actually. But the problem with these drugs is that they’re. Highly addictive, as many of you know and that are listening, and I’m sure you know too, Ruth, is that because they bind so tightly to the GABA receptor that they deplete you of GABA even quicker as a result.

And so that you are already in a bind because you are anxious, depressed, and you know, whatever. And now you’re, now you have these drugs that are causing the system to have more GABA to bind to the receptor and then causing more depletion of gaba and then the receptors downregulate themselves and all these other.

Uh, biomechanical processes as a result of trying to compensate the increased risk of tolerance, withdrawal, you know, dependence and even death if you stop them too quickly. And so the key for me is to do things in multi, sort of dimensional here, right? The first one is what are the, you know, the dietary lifestyle things that we can do to enhance gaba?

And then from there, looking at supplementation that can also enhance the GABA system. In a natural, supportive way. And then from there, then looking at, you know, the more of the, the full workup and getting them more optimized using the whole framework that I use. And so mm-hmm. And, and that’s kind of what I think about.

And there, there are some easy things you can do from a dietary perspective, from a lifestyle perspective. Sometimes easy, sometimes hard, depending on the person. Um, is it ever 

Ruth Soukup: easy? Yeah. But so what are some of these things? 

Dr. Scott Sherr: Yeah, from a dietary perspective, we do know that there’s some, there’s certain certain bacteria in our gut that are very, very good at signaling the GABA system in the brain overall.

So lactobacillus and bifidobacterium. So you wanna have, you know, you know, fermented foods, like fermented foods can be really, really good because they support that gut bacteria overall. Um, ideally, you know, kinda wanna know what’s going on in the gut before you give a whole lot of fermented foods. ’cause if you have a leaky gut, it may not work so well.

But in essence. Fermented foods are really, really good. So dietary and then dietary sources of an amino acid called glutamine. Glutamine is an amino acid that’s in a lot of different types of food, but glutamine is the precursor to that glutamate that I was mentioning earlier that gets converted into gaba, into the brain.

And so and so, those are some of the glutamine containing foods. Um, meat containing products, also cabbage. Um, sauerkraut also also has glutamine. Uh, but, but meat. Is gonna be your best sort of glutamine overall? Um, from, from a lifestyle perspective? Um, all, I mean, of course on the dietary side, we’re also trying to get rid of things that are causing a lot of inflammation.

The standard American diet that goes without saying. But, um, but from a, a lifestyle perspective it is, you know, calming the F down, you know, and finding, find ways to be able to do that. And, and that may not be easy for everybody, right? I dunno if I’m about a cursing your podcast. No. Especially 

Ruth Soukup: if you have teenagers.

Do you have teenagers yet? Dr. Scott? 

Dr. Scott Sherr: I have a 14-year-old, so yes, you define defined. To find dance Buffalo girl, or, oh, she’s great girl. Girl. Yeah. Okay. Oh, she gives me a run for my money, but she also reminds me of me and you know, from like, and so I, I kind of know how her brain works a little bit, but the biting, sarcasm, it’s just beautiful.

I love it. I love it. It’s so good. I, she says something, I’m like, wow. It’s. That’s amazing. Well done. My wife, she might not have the same response that I do, but I love it. I think it’s great. So, so far, so far, um, um, oh, what was I talking about? Oh yeah, from, from a lifestyle perspective, um, calming down, so.

Things like, not going hard at the gym, but like doing yoga, right? Or doing like stretching activities. Pilates, like these are great things to help relax your nervous system. Going for walks, um, meditation, breath work. And what I mean by breath work, I mean relaxing, breath work, breath work that actually helps you relax your nervous system.

And that’s typically just increasing your exhales so you’re inspired. Short, exhale long. Three, five. There’s other patterns, box breathing. These are all very, very helpful. But, but it can be really hard, as you and I know, Ruth, to have this conversation with people that are already highly stressed. And so I often will start off with supplementation is what it comes down to because I know that the supplements will work.

’cause I’ve, I know which ones will work typically. And the big piece here to know is that there are supplements, there are GABA supplements over the counter that you can buy. You can buy a GABA supplement. Um, but the problem is that GABA as a supplement should not work because GABA is too big of a molecule to get across into the brain.

Ruth Soukup: Oh, if 

Dr. Scott Sherr: it does work, if you take GABA and it works, it could mean that that barrier, that blood brain barrier. Is leaking, it’s leaky. So that is allowing things in that shouldn’t get in there. And what that usually means is that you have a leaky gut as well. And so that does require looking at optimizing, you know, your leaky gut and optimizing your leaky brain as a result of that, right?

And so just know that. So if you’re taking G, but with other things in there, the other things may be helping. But if the gaba, you’re taking GABA on its own, it’s working. You need to go get that checked out and see if you have a leaky gut and try to optimize that. So, um, from, but from a supplement perspective, the first things that I think about are glutamine.

We talked about as amino acid, which can be really helpful. And then glutamate in the brain that excitatory neurotransmitter gets converted into GABA and it needs magnesium and vitamin B six to be able to do that. So. A significant proportion of US adults are magnesium deficient. So taking magnesium is really, really important.

It helps calm down the brain firing, because it enhances that gaba. It also decreases glutamate toxicity, like that glutamate overload. It actually decreases the response of the brain to the glutamate directly. So magnesium is great for so many different things as, as you, as you know, I’m sure. Um, and, and then I think about what supplements are gonna help support the GABA system that are gonna help.

Overall, holistically doing it without depleting, you know, GABA in the process. And so I use a lot of CVA Cava, C, B, D, ccb G. These are Nonpsychoactive. Cannabinoids. Yeah. So Cava 

Ruth Soukup: too, huh? 

Dr. Scott Sherr: Kava. And then also something called Nico gaba, which is a vitamin B three attached to the gaba. When you attach a B three to it, B three gets across a brain, no problem.

It takes GABA with it. And then you have B2B three in the brain, which is mildly activating, and you have the gaba, which is relaxing. And then the combination is like you have this sort of relaxed calm without feeling tired, which is really nice. So there’s a combination of one of my companies, it’s called TRO Tcom.

It has C-B-D-C-B-G kava, and it has, um, this nicotine GABA in it. And it’s, it gives that downregulation of the nervous system without making you feel tired and. When you start feeling more downregulated, you are like, oh, this is what it feels like to not be overstressed all the time. And that could be scary for some people.

Like a 

Ruth Soukup: hug for your brain. 

Dr. Scott Sherr: It’s like a hug for your brain. It’s like calming down. But you can, but the idea is that you can titrate your dose. You can take a little bit just to take the edge off. Mm-hmm. Or you take more if you’re like, feeling like true anxiousness and tension. Yeah. And really wanna quiet the mind.

And, and there’s also a sleep product that we have as well called TRO that has some of these GABAergic things in, in them. But the key that we always and has other things like five HDP and, and, and works on deep sleep in other ways, but in essence. The key here is that you wanna support the GABA neurotransmitter system.

You want to, you want to rebuild those breaks so that they’re available to you. And that from a dietary perspective, a lifestyle perspective and supplementation, um, you can start retraining and rewiring the nervous system in a way that’s more balanced. 

Ruth Soukup: Yes. And 

Dr. Scott Sherr: then when you’re more balanced. Then you can start really working on that metabolomic, the, the metabolism itself, and then energy.

And then, because once you start doing that, you’re already gonna start feeling so much better. Yeah. And, and people think that they need to do more and more and more. But relaxing often makes us do more, like we’re actually more productive when we’re a little bit more relaxed. And yes, everybody’s had that symptom of like.

Being in front of an audience and forgetting all your lines, what you were gonna say, and or going on a podcast like, oh man, what was, I was gonna say, I forgot. Because your brain gets so overstressed that the blood flow to your frontal lobe actually goes down because of constriction of blood vessels.

And so if you can just take the edge off a little bit, your brain’s frontal lobe gets more of that blood flow back. You get that executive function back and you can, you flow right. 

Ruth Soukup: Yeah. Instead of like all the racing thoughts. That makes total sense and, and I, it reminds me of, we talk a lot on this podcast about metabolic flexibility.

Yeah. And the importance of healing your metabolism so that you can eat the cake occasionally and not completely throw your system off. But it sounds like you’re basically talking about metabolic flexibility for your brain so that your nervous sy or for your nervous system, so that your nervous system is also flexible so that you can handle everything and function better.

Yeah. So. Interesting. So tell me about these supplements. Do you take, is it like a drink that you take or is it a pill, or how do you, how do you, 

Dr. Scott Sherr: yeah. 

Ruth Soukup: Do you like sipping? Sipping a little calming drink and having that be better than a glass of wine? 

Dr. Scott Sherr: Well, that’s the thing, right? So alcohol, let’s talk about that for a minute, right?

So alcohol, okay, let’s talk about it. Okay, so people that are listening probably drink some alcohol some of the time, and that’s okay. But the problem is that alcohol binds into that GABA receptor really, really tightly, and that it takes itself off very quickly too. So this is the. For me, not for you it sounds like, but I go to bed after drinking alcohol.

I wake up two hours later, wide awake with a headache. And that’s because you have this glutamate overload. ’cause you’ve depleted all that GABA we were talking about. Right. And so people that get headaches, irritable. Feel terrible. That’s because you depleted all that GABA very quickly, and this is why alcohol trashes your sleep.

Um, and so if you drink too close to going to bed, you’re not going to sleep as well. I don’t care if you wake up in, in the morning feeling okay, your sleep is not gonna be as good as it would would’ve been if you didn’t have alcohol on board. So alcohol does affect the GABA system, but it does it in a way that is detrimental because it binds so tightly to the receptor.

And then. Un binds very quickly. And then over time, if you’re drinking a lot, um, it can, you know, cause dependence and withdrawal and all those kinds of things, but I get it, people wanna relax, right? Like, especially if you have kids and they’ve just gone to bed. Like when I had younger kids, like it would be very common for my wife to have a glass of wine and I.

I was totally on board with that. Right. But, but I totally understand. Like it’s a lot for all of us. Right. And so, but there are alternatives, right? And, and that’s really what it comes down to. And when we were developing our products, our companies called transcriptions, and as we were developing our products, we wanted to help people.

Right now. While they’re on the longer path to optimizing their health and from our perspective, so I’m in, I’m a clinician and I know about these things called troche. A troche is a dissolvable lozenge that goes between your upper cheek and gum, and it’s scored. So you can take a quarter of it, a half of it, a full three quarters, and kind of figure out what your dose is.

You put it there, you let it, you put it between your upper cheek and gum, and you let it dissolve. It takes about 15 minutes to 30 minutes to dissolve. 

Ruth Soukup: Yeah, and 

Dr. Scott Sherr: it’s a fantastic form factor because you can find out the dose that’s right for you and you can take the right dose depending on what you need.

You can take a quarter, take the edge off, you can take three quarters if you really need to kind of like wind down after a night of craziness in the house and 17 different places you had to take your children that day or whatever. Mm-hmm. Because when you have four kids, as you do as well, you were, you were one of, you’re one of four, right?

So like, it’s like every night it’s like, how many places do I have to go every night to be before everybody’s driving? You get my point, right? So the, the idea is like, you want to create, um, a way to help people calm down their nervous system and, and, but do it in kind of a titrated sort of way overall.

And so the trophies are great because they’re, they’re breakable like that. And, uh. The ingredients in them, the are, are very fast acting as a result because if they dissolve it in your, in your cheek, they’re gonna go directly into your bloodstream pretty quickly. As opposed if you swallow something it takes longer because it has to go through your stomach.

Mm-hmm. Your small intestine and then the liver as well detoxifies or degrades things that from being active and so you get less activity of your supplements if you swallow them compared to being dissolved in the mouth as well. And so the troche is faster, it’s more bioavailable, meaning that more of the ingredients get into the system and they’re tit treatable, which is great.

And so the TRO com specifically here, the Kava C-B-D-C-B-G, and the nicotine on gaba, these are all working on the GABA system to help enhance it in a holistic way. So you’re getting things like Kava and CBD and CBG, which work on separate sites on the GABA receptor. Basically they enhance GABA to bind and they increase the affinity for GABA to bind, but they’re also giving Nico gaba, which is GABA itself.

Really, that’s getting into the brain. So it’s holistically supporting the receptor as opposed to just binding to a site and increasing the affinity for gabaa bind only, which we could potentially deplete GABA over the time. But, but there are supplements out there like, you know, kava, people take kava all the time as a drink, as you probably know, and Kavas been used for thousands of years, and it’s fantastic.

Overall. There’s things like. Passion flower. And there’s, um, what else is a really great, um, there’s something, Magnolia bark is another great one from that, it works in the GABA system. Valerian root is something that people use also that works on the GABA system. Um, we have an an extract of magnolia bark.

In our sleep product called tro, and we has also also something in that one called Arin as well. Arin is a long-acting molecule that works on the GABA receptor where GABA binds, and it’s from the Amanita musca mushroom. That is a psychedelic mushroom. It’s the one that has been known. For many, many years to have a psychedelic experience.

This particular compound in it is not psychedelic, but Santa Claus mythology is thought to be related to the Amman Mus musca mushroom in Siberia. Yeah. Yeah. It’s really, yeah. So if you look up some the Amman mushroom, look up Santa Claus, you’ll see all some really amazing stuff about the mushroom and shamanistic experiences and reindeers flying and reindeers love to get high on this mushroom, evidently in Siberia.

But this particular compound is not psychedelic and we use a very low dose of it. Okay. Good to 

Ruth Soukup: know. 

Dr. Scott Sherr: And it works on the GABA system. And so, 

Ruth Soukup: so is it better to do it while you sleep put to like bring your, bring your GABA levels up while you sleep? Or is it better to do it while you’re awake or is both beneficial?

Dr. Scott Sherr: I think both can be beneficial. It just depends on the dose and it depends on the, the reason overall. So you can use like low amounts of it during the day to help take that edge off. Mm-hmm. Or if you have like true anxiety, you can take it to, you know, calm down anxiety as well. Yeah. At night, you know, we need GABA around to help us with sleep onset or getting, getting us to sleep, and also maintaining our sleep.

And so the reason, one of the reasons why we don’t, the serotonin’s also involved in this, but, but GABA’s also involved, one of the reasons we don’t wake, wake up in our dreams is that we have enough GABA around to keep us asleep. Because if you’re going bungee jumping and then, you know, going to Niagara Falls and then, and then fighting demons like.

That could wake you up. It wakes people up sometimes too, right? Yeah. But what actually keeps you not waking up is the GABA that’s there. And so having like GABA around is really, really important at night when you’re sleeping to help maintain your sleep. 

Ruth Soukup: Yeah. Oh, interesting. Yeah. Well, I feel like there’s a lot more that we could talk about, but we are out of time.

You can find Dr. Scott Sherr at home-sf.com or at homehope.orgFind his GABA products HERE.

Or on social–at @drscottsherr or @troscriptions on Instagram

The post The Brain Chemical No One’s Talking About (But Should Be) with Dr. Scott Sherr appeared first on Thinlicious.

And whether it was your healthiest summer yet, or you found it hard to get out of vacation mode, there’s nothing quite like a change in season to bring fresh motivation and sometimes, a much-needed reset.

A lot of people like to save their goal-setting and resolutions for January, but I love to do it seasonally. Because why only focus on STARTING the year strong, when you can end strong too?

And that’s exactly what we’re going to talk about today.

Hey there, and welcome back to the Feel Better, Live Free podcast! Once again, my name is Ruth Soukup and I am the founder of Thinlicious and the creator of the Thin Adapted System.

And if this is your first time listening, here’s what you should know about me: I’m a 47-year-old woman who struggled with my weight and health for almost 10 years, failing at diet after diet, until I finally decided to take a radically different approach. 

Instead of starting yet another diet, I started researching. And I quickly learned that almost everything we’ve ever been told about health and weight loss is totally wrong.

So I changed the way I ate. I stopped focusing on calories and started worrying about hormones. 

And I lost 49 pounds without dieting or Ozempic or making myself miserable, and now I’ve kept that weight off for years. 

Not because every day is perfect, but because I’ve learned that progress matters more than perfection, and that big goals never happen all at once–they are only the result of small steps taken consistently over time.

And that’s probably the perfect lead-in to what I want to talk about today–five health goals you can set for yourself this fall that will help you finish the year strong, instead feeling like you are limping to the finish line.

Because I’ll be honest, there was a time when fall felt like the start of my shame spiral. I’d beat myself up for all the ice cream, all the sugary cocktails and skipped workouts that filled my summer. 

I’d start obsessing about calories and trying to punish myself back into control.

But that never worked. It only made me feel worse.

What finally worked—what helped me lose those 49 pounds and actually keep it off—was flipping the script. 

Instead of starting another diet, I started building habits and setting goals that helped me feel empowered, not restricted.

And that’s exactly what I want to give you today: 5 simple health goals you can set this fall that don’t involve dieting, guilt, or starting over. Just real, sustainable change that will help you finish the year strong.

Because if you’re anything like me and a lot of my clients, you’ve probably spent a big portion of the summer in survival mode. Driving kids to camp and summer practices. Hosting get-togethers. Traveling. Letting routines slide because you’re just trying to keep everyone happy and get through the day.

And now? 

You’re ready for a vacation from your vacation. You’re frustrated with yourself, but you’re also scared to start something new because what if you fail again?

I hear you. And I promise—these goals are designed to help you start small but build big momentum. No perfection required. No misery involved. Just forward movement.

But before we dive in, if you’re new to this podcast and you want to understand exactly why your metabolism feels broken and what you can do about it, be sure to check out my free training video. It’s called Healthy, Happy & Free and will help you map out a 12 month plan for transforming your health for good. It’s super helpful, and again–it’s free. Just go to HERE to get your hands on it.

And with that out of the way, let’s dive into these five simple health goals you can set this fall.

Goal #1: Commit to a Morning Anchor Habit

Goal number one that I want you to consider is committing to what I call a morning anchor habit.

And before you roll your eyes at me, know that I’m not talking about some elaborate two-hour morning routine that you see all over Instagram. You don’t need to wake up at 4 AM, meditate for 45 minutes, journal for 20, and hit the gym before your kids wake up.

That’s not realistic for most of us, and honestly, it’s setting you up to fail.

What I’m talking about is ONE small habit that grounds you and reminds you that you are in charge of your day.

Maybe it’s a 10-minute walk around the block. 

Maybe it’s writing down your top 3 priorities for the day. 

Maybe it’s sitting with your coffee for five minutes and not checking your phone. 

But whatever it is—make it non-negotiable.

Here’s why this matters: 

Your morning sets the tone for everything that follows. If you start the day reactive—checking emails, scrolling social media, jumping straight into everyone else’s demands—you’ve already lost control before 8 AM.

But when you start with something that centers you, something that reminds you of your priorities, you create what psychologists call a “keystone habit”—one small behavior that triggers other positive behaviors throughout the day.

When I first started my own health journey, my anchor was a protein-packed breakfast every morning. It didn’t seem like much, but it stopped me from grabbing the kids’ leftover waffles or skipping breakfast entirely and then being ravenous by 10 AM.

That one habit created a ripple effect. Because I started my day nourished, I had steady energy. Because I had steady energy, I made better choices at lunch. Because I made better choices all day, I felt proud of myself instead of defeated.

One habit. Multiple benefits.

But here’s the key—it has to be something you can actually do. If you’re not a morning person, don’t commit to a 6 AM workout. If you hate journaling, don’t force yourself to write three pages of gratitude. Pick something that feels doable, even on your worst days.

Because here’s what happens: When you start proving to yourself that you can follow through on one small commitment, your brain starts to believe you’re the kind of person who follows through. 

And that identity shift? That’s where real change begins.

So your action step for goal number one: Choose one morning habit that centers you. Something that takes 10 minutes or less. Something that reminds you that you matter and your health matters. And do it every day for the next 30 days.

Don’t overthink it. Don’t make it complicated. Just pick one thing and commit.

Goal #2: Put Yourself Back on the Calendar

The second goal is simple but revolutionary: 

Open your calendar right now and schedule 20 minutes a day for your health.

I can already hear some of you saying, “Ruth, I don’t have 20 minutes. I’m barely keeping my head above water as it is.”

But here’s the thing—you’re not finding time for your health because you’re not making time for your health. 

And if it’s not on the calendar, it’s not happening.

Think about it: You wouldn’t miss a doctor’s appointment for your kid. You wouldn’t skip an important work meeting. You wouldn’t forget to pick up your dry cleaning if you’d written it down.

But somehow, we expect ourselves to magically find time for the things that matter to us without actually scheduling them.

That stops now.

Whether it’s meal prep, a walk, listening to this podcast, or just sitting quietly for 20 minutes—it doesn’t matter what you do with that time. 

What matters is that you block it and you honor it.

I always tell my clients: Your health is the meeting that makes all the other meetings possible. Your energy is what allows you to show up for everyone else. Your well-being is what lets you be the mom, the wife, the employee, the friend that you want to be.

So treat it that way.

If you’ve followed me here to Thinlicious from my other brands, you know that I’ve been a stickler for time blocking for a very long time–I even used to sell my own Living Well Planner that incorporated time blocking into your weekly planning rhythm.

But it’s a non-negotiable for me, even now, all these years later.

I have time blocked out every morning for a walk outside, and rain or shine, that walk happens.

But what I noticed when I started blocking out time for me is that I started showing up differently for everything else because I was taking care of myself first.

Now, I know this feels selfish. Especially if you’re a mom, especially if you’re used to putting everyone else’s needs before your own. 

But the truth is that taking care of yourself isn’t selfish. It’s strategic.

When you’re running on empty, everyone gets the worst version of you. When you’re nourished—physically, mentally, emotionally—everyone gets the best version of you.

So what could you do with 20 minutes a day? 

Maybe it’s prep vegetables for the week on Sunday. Maybe it’s a quick walk after lunch. Maybe it’s taking a bath instead of collapsing in front of Netflix.

The specifics don’t matter. What matters is that you’re sending yourself the message: I am worth 20 minutes of my own time.

Your action step for goal number two: Open your calendar right now. Block 20 minutes every day this week. Write “health time” or “me time” or whatever you want to call it. And then honor that appointment like you would any other commitment.

Because that’s exactly what it is—a commitment to yourself.

Goal #3: Choose Progress Over Perfection

Alright, let’s talk about goal number three: Choose progress over perfection.

Raise your hand if you’ve ever “started fresh on Monday,” only to blow it by Wednesday and quit entirely.

I see you. I’ve been you.

For years, I was the queen of all-or-nothing thinking. I’d start a new diet with perfect intentions—meal plans mapped out, workouts scheduled, zero room for error. And for a few days, maybe even a week, I’d nail it.

Until I didn’t.

Maybe I’d eat a cookie at a work meeting. Maybe I’d skip a workout because I was tired. Maybe I’d have a glass of wine on a Wednesday night because it had been a long day.

And then what would happen? I’d tell myself I’d blown it. That I was weak. That I might as well eat the rest of the cookies and start over Monday.

Sound familiar?

That’s perfectionism talking. And it’s a trap that keeps so many women stuck in cycles of starting and stopping, losing and gaining, feeling motivated and then feeling defeated.

But here’s your permission slip: It doesn’t have to be perfect to be working.

We tell our TAS clients all the time—just show up and make the next best choice. 

Even if it’s messy. Even if you have wine on Thursday night. Even if you eat a cupcake at your kid’s birthday party.

Health isn’t about being perfect. It’s about building consistency over time.

Let me give you an example. One of our TAS clients, Michelle, came to us after years of yo-yo dieting. She was convinced she had to eat perfectly to see results. So she’d white-knuckle it for a few weeks, then binge, then start over.

When she joined TAS, we had to completely rewire her thinking. We taught her that eating well 80% of the time would get her infinitely better results than trying to eat perfectly and burning out every few weeks.

So she started embracing the “good enough” approach. Most days, she ate nutrient-dense, hormone-balancing foods. But some days, she had pizza with her family. Some days, she grabbed fast food because life got crazy.

And you know what happened? She not only reversed her Type 2 diabetes diagnosis, but she went through breast cancer treatment feeling stronger and more energized than she ever thought possible. Not because she was perfect, but because she was consistent.

Because here’s the truth: Perfectionism isn’t actually about having high standards. It’s about fear. Fear of failure. Fear of not being good enough. Fear of disappointing yourself again.

But when you choose progress over perfection, you give yourself permission to be human. You give yourself room to learn and grow and adjust. You make the process sustainable instead of suffocating.

So what does this look like practically?

Instead of thinking, “I blew it, so I might as well give up,” you think, “That wasn’t my best choice, but I can make a better one next time.”

Instead of thinking, “I have to eat perfectly to see results,” you think, “I’m going to aim for mostly good choices and see what happens.”

Instead of thinking, “I’m a failure because I missed my workout,” you think, “I’ll take a 10-minute walk instead.”

It’s about reframing setbacks as data points, not disasters. It’s about focusing on the trend, not the individual moments.

Your action step for goal number three: The next time you make a choice you’re not proud of—maybe you eat the leftover Halloween candy, maybe you skip your walk, maybe you have one too many glasses of wine—instead of spiraling, take a deep breath and ask yourself: “What can I learn from this? How can I make a better choice next time?”

Then make that better choice. Don’t wait for Monday. Don’t wait for tomorrow. Make it right then.

Because progress isn’t about perfection. It’s about getting back up one more time than you fall down.

Goal #4: Reconnect with Your Why

Goal number four might be the most important one on this list: Reconnect with your why.

When was the last time you asked yourself, “Why do I actually want to feel better?”

Not the surface reasons. Not what you think you should say. The real why.

Because I’m going to bet that if you’re like most women, you’ve been so focused on the “what”—what you should eat, what you should avoid, what the scale should say—that you’ve lost sight of the “why.”

And without a strong why, you’re trying to fuel long-term change with short-term motivation. And that never works.

Let me share something personal with you. When I first started my health journey, I thought my why was simple: I wanted to lose weight. I wanted to look better. I wanted to fit into smaller clothes.

And sure, those things mattered. But they weren’t enough to sustain me through the hard days.

My real why—the one that kept me going when I wanted to quit—was deeper than that.

I was tired of being tired. I was tired of feeling like I was just surviving instead of thriving. I was tired of saying no to things because I didn’t feel confident in my skin. I was tired of my daughters seeing me hate my body and learning that that was normal.

I wanted energy to be fully present with my family. I wanted confidence to pursue my dreams without feeling held back. I wanted to prove to myself that I could do hard things.

That’s what got me through the plateau at month four. That’s what got me through the cravings in week two. That’s what gets me up for my morning walk even when I don’t feel like it.

Your why has to be bigger than your excuses. It has to be more compelling than your comfort zone.

Maybe your why is having the energy to keep up with your grandkids. Maybe it’s feeling confident enough to go on that vacation you’ve been putting off. Maybe it’s modeling self-care for your children. Maybe it’s proving to yourself that you’re worth the effort.

Whatever it is, it needs to be yours. Not what you think you should want. Not what worked for your sister or your friend. Yours.

And here’s the key—it needs to be about how you want to feel, not just how you want to look.

Because the truth is, the scale might not move for weeks. Your jeans might fit the same for months. But how you feel? That can change much faster.

When you’re eating foods that balance your hormones, you’ll have more energy. When you’re moving your body regularly, you’ll sleep better. When you’re taking care of yourself, you’ll feel more confident.

Those changes happen long before the physical ones. And they’re often more meaningful.

One of our TAS clients came to us feeling completely depleted. She was juggling a demanding job and teenagers, and she felt like she was just going through the motions of life.

When we asked her about her why, she initially said she wanted to lose weight. But when we dug deeper, what she really wanted was to feel like herself again. To have the energy to enjoy her life instead of just enduring it.

That became her north star. On days when the scale didn’t move, she focused on how much better she felt. On days when she wanted to quit, she remembered how tired she was of feeling tired.

And that deeper why carried her through to not just weight loss, but to feeling alive again.

Your action step for goal number four: Take 10 minutes right now and write down your real why. Not the surface reasons, but the deep ones. Why do you want to feel better? How do you want to feel in your body? What do you want your life to look like?

Write it down. Put it on your bathroom mirror. Save it as the wallpaper on your phone. Read it every morning.

Because your why is what will get you back on track when motivation fades. And trust me—motivation will fade. But your why? That’s what lasts.

Goal #5: Say No to One Thing That Drains You

And that brings us to goal number five: Say no to one thing that drains you.

This might be the hardest goal on the list, especially if you’re a people pleaser. But it might also be the most important.

Because here’s the thing—fall gets busy fast. The holidays are coming. School activities ramp up. Work projects pile on. And if you’re not careful, you’ll find yourself saying yes to everything and everyone except yourself.

But every time you say yes to something that drains you, you’re saying no to your own well-being.

I learned this the hard way. For years, I was the yes woman. The volunteer coordinator. The friend who would drop everything to help. The employee who took on extra projects. The mom who signed up for every committee.

And I wore it like a badge of honor. Look how helpful I am. Look how needed I am. Look how much I can handle.

Until I couldn’t handle it anymore.

I was exhausted, resentful, and running on empty. I had no time for my health, no energy for my family, and no bandwidth for the things that actually mattered to me.

That’s when I realized that saying no isn’t selfish—it’s strategic.

Every obligation on your calendar is a choice. Every commitment you make is a trade-off. And if you’re not choosing consciously, you’re choosing by default.

Now, I’m not saying you should become a hermit or stop helping people. But I am saying you need to get honest about what’s actually serving you and what’s just depleting you.

That PTA meeting that always turns into a gossip session? That friend who only calls when she needs something? That volunteer commitment you took on out of guilt? That extra project at work that you know will go unnoticed?

You’re allowed to say no. In fact, your health requires it.

So what’s draining you? What are you saying yes to out of obligation rather than desire? What could you eliminate to make room for what actually matters?

Maybe it’s a toxic friendship that always leaves you feeling heavy. Maybe it’s a social media habit that makes you feel worse about yourself. Maybe it’s a weekly commitment that you dread.

Whatever it is, you have permission to let it go.

Your action step for goal number five: Identify one commitment, obligation, or habit that drains your energy. This week, either eliminate it entirely or set a boundary around it.

And when you feel guilty—because you probably will—remind yourself: Every no to something that drains you is a yes to something that serves you.

Final Thoughts

So there you have it—5 simple but powerful goals to help you reset, refocus, and reclaim your energy this fall.

Let me recap them for you:

First, commit to a morning anchor habit. One small routine that centers you and reminds you that you’re in charge of your day.

Second, put yourself back on the calendar. Block 20 minutes a day for your health and honor that time like you would any other commitment.

Third, choose progress over perfection. Aim for consistency, not flawlessness. Good enough is better than not at all.

Fourth, reconnect with your why. Remember why you want to feel better and let that fuel you when motivation fades.

And fifth, say no to one thing that drains you. Make room for what matters by eliminating what doesn’t.

Now, I want you to imagine something. Imagine what could happen if you followed through on even one of these goals. Imagine what it would feel like to end the year strong instead of defeated. Imagine looking back on this fall as the time when everything started to shift.

That’s not fantasy. That’s possibility. And it’s available to you right now.

But here’s the thing—reading about these goals won’t change your life. Setting intentions won’t transform your health. Action will.

So pick one goal. Just one. And start today.

Not Monday. Not after Halloween. Not when things calm down. Today.

Because the truth is, there will never be a perfect time to prioritize your health. Life will always be busy. There will always be obstacles. There will always be reasons to wait.

But you’ve been waiting long enough.

And if you want more support in building these habits and transforming your health for good, I want to invite you to check out our Thin Adapted System program. TAS isn’t just about weight loss—it’s about healing your body from the inside out so you can feel amazing in your skin.

We give you the science, the meal plans, the coaching, and the community you need to make lasting change. Not through restriction or deprivation, but through nourishment and balance.

You can learn more by watching our free training. Or if you’re not ready for that step yet, grab our free starter guide HERE. It’s called Flip the Switch, and it’ll help you understand exactly why traditional dieting fails and what actually works for women over 40.

You can find the links for both in our show notes.

But remember—freedom isn’t found in a diet. It’s found in ownership. And these 5 goals are your invitation to take that ownership back.

You don’t have to wait until January to start feeling better. You don’t have to wait until you have it all figured out. You just have to start.

So here’s to finishing the year strong. Here’s to choosing progress over perfection. Here’s to putting yourself back on your own priority list.

You’ve got this, friend. And I’m cheering you on every step of the way.

The post 5 Health Goals to Set This Fall That Will Help You Finish the Year Strong appeared first on Thinlicious.

Here at Thinlicious we’ll talk about everything from the science of weight loss to practical tips for making your health a priority in the midst of a busy life. It’s a little bit nerdy, a little bit funny, and a little bit revolutionary.

So buckle up friend, because it’s about to get real.

For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Ruth Soukup and I am the founder of Thinlicious and the creator of the Thin Adapted System. And today we’re chatting with Deb Schachter, a seasoned therapist and one of Boston’s top experts in body image and eating disorder recovery.

With over 30 years of experience, Deb brings a powerful mix of mindfulness, curiosity, and deep compassion to her work. Helping women not just fix how they feel about their bodies, but understand why those feelings are showing up in the first place. She’s also the co-author of the new book Body Image Inside Out, and believe me, what she shares today is something every woman needs to hear.

So let’s get right to it.

Deb, thanks so much for being here today. I’m so excited to talk to you. 

Deb Schachter: Thank you. Thank you so much for having me. Likewise. 

Ruth Soukup: Yeah. So let’s just start with the basic question. I like to start with everyone. Who are you, what do you do, and how did you get to be doing what you are now? 

Deb Schachter: It’s always, it’s always, uh, such an interesting thing to answer.

So I’m gonna orient, um, around my practice, but really, you know, part of what I, um, feel so passionate about is working with body image specifically. So, um, my name is Deb Schachter. I have a private practice in Boston, Massachusetts. I’m a licensed clinical social worker and have been doing individual group work and group work for about 30 years and about 20 years ago, um.

I, uh, made a wonderful friend and we happened to start talking about body image in a really, uh, different way than either of us had ever talked about it before. And we started running workshops. So we’ve been running those for about 20 years now. And, um, in 2019 I had run one independently because at that time my co-author Whitney had, um, had kids and was caught up in some other things.

And I ran one, um, on my own. Kinda circled back to her and I said, I think we gotta put this in a book. And so we embarked on a web, on a book. Um, and, and five years later, here we are. So, um, so, uh, it was quite a journey and we learned so much through the writing so much more. I mean, I’ve always felt so passionate about body image, but the book taught me so much and I, in really finding language for how to do this work and how to think about how to understand what body image work really looks like.

So. 

Ruth Soukup: Yeah. Amazing. That’s amazing. There is nothing that will like make you question your self worth. I feel like more than writing a book. 

Deb Schachter: Oh my god. I thought you were gonna say the body image, but isn’t it? Yeah. Oh, excruciating. Yeah, excruciating. It’s, it’s been fascinating and especially co-writing ’cause we have very different backgrounds.

Whitney’s a, um, Oly was a, um, Olympic world champion, rower and an athlete, and I’ve been in sort of the therapy, you know, bubble. Um, and so she’s been much more in the athletic world, so just for each of us, I think. But you know, like you said, it challenges your self worth. And at the same time, you know, when we wrote the book, we felt really clear.

We wanted it to really be for everyone because. Everyone lives in a body and everybody has feelings about it. And so it’s so, I mean, that was part of what got me excited about writing the book was that it wasn’t just an eating disorder book. Not that that’s not incredibly important, but that there are so few places that we know how to talk about body image or that we’ve been taught to talk about body image in a way that feels connected or.

Or you know, we really try and bring a lot of levity and humor to it. It’s so hard to find places to do that. So we really wanted to create a space where people could do that in a really different kind of way. 

Ruth Soukup: I love that. I love that. So tell me a little bit more about your methodology or what you sort of stuff Yeah.

You were working together and how that works. 

Deb Schachter: Yeah. Yeah. So the name of the book is Body Image Inside Out. Originally we called. Um, the workshops, the body, self, and sort of the origins of it are really based in the friendship that Whitney and I had because so early we both were in recovery ourselves from eating disorders and really were in, you know, very stable places in terms of our recovery.

But we sort of felt like we both had hit kind of a glass ceiling with body image that there’s sort of like. But I, I think to this day, I think there’s sort of this assumption like you just tolerate it, you fix it or you tolerate it. And so we really got curious about that. And you know, I think what just happened organically is a, that it was so fun to be able to, and who would think of it as this fun, but to talk about body image was someone else in a safe way that felt more, um.

Just kind of like, um, free almost. It was sort of like we just started to share these stories in the ways that we thought about our bodies in a, in a way that just felt sort of natural. And I think from that we just realized like how much more could really come out when you create that kind of environment where there’s that kind of safety maybe when it isn’t even therapy in a way, right?

Where it’s not like I should be saying this or thinking this. It was just kind of these goofy stories that we had and names that we had come up with for our various. You know, body parts or phases of our life or, um, and so you know, what started as that really morphed into not only the, the safety, but also the clarity that.

We started to notice both, I think for each other and for ourselves, that our body image got louder at different times, and that was really interesting. So starting to really track the whys and the whens of that, even though you know that that may last a day, a week, a month. A decade, but really getting curious about where life and body image intersect and that, that really felt like an untapped kind of thing to explore.

And that’s where we really started getting curious. And then what happened when we wrote the book, which was really kind of blew both of our minds, was the chapter that we didn’t know existed, which was body image and relationships. And really looking at how our body image is informed by our relational life, both in terms of, you know.

Our past, our families of origin, but really also thinking about in our day to day, why is it sometimes when we wake up in the morning we feel fine and then all of a sudden we feel like our pants are too tight and we need to go home and you know, put on a burlap sack, something’s happened and it’s relational.

99% of the time it’s relational. It could be, oh my God, I’m going to my reunion, or I just saw my mother-in-law. It could be anything, but there’s something relational that’s happening. And once we kind of. Aha. That when we were writing, we sort of thought, oh, game changer. This is where the work is, is helping people really start to get curious about that interplay between their relationships and their body image and those spikes and valleys.

Ruth Soukup: Yeah. That’s so interesting. So have you found, you know, you’ve worked with all, all these different clients. Have you found that there’s certain correlations for certain things? Are there patterns that happen or does it look totally different for everyone? 

Deb Schachter: It’s such a great question. I think, I think it is different for everyone in that, you know, we talk about how we help people sort of translate their body image and for their unique story, but the themes that that I think really again, got sort of captured in this chapter that we were trying to articulate to, to your point, there’s nothing that makes you more humble that these are things I’ve thought about, but to put into words.

Okay. We actually. We, we don’t start worrying about our body. You know, we may start worrying about our bodies when we’re, you know, preteen or teen or whatever. But our first relational mirrors are our parents, our caregivers. So there’s all kinds of information. It may be body image related or body related.

You’re so athletic, you have your mother’s thighs, whatever. But it can also be, you know, just the ways we experience, how we experience, whether we. Are seen and understood and you know, whether people are curious about us, how we connect to people, and how they kind of give us, you know, messages around how we can be, um, accepted by them or loved by them.

So. Really what’s become our, um, kind of quintessential workshop is looking at those stories, looking at each of our unique stories, but those patterns around that early mirroring and how then as we move into our adult lives, when there may be. Um, repetitions of some of that early mirroring, mirroring. So that could be, you know, if we were really, um, we always felt like we needed to be the funny one in our family, or we were the, you know, we had a, an ill sibling, so we were the ones that kept our needs really small.

How those may show up in our adult relationships and how often there are body image bumps that happen in those places because we’re trying to manage some of the feelings that we. Don’t even realize we’re trying to manage through body image or through, you know, our sense of our body and what it may, how it could be better or, um, make the, make the relationship somehow improved.

Ruth Soukup: Huh. So what does that look like for you in your personal story, in your personal journey? Like how, where did you kind of start and then Yeah, 

Deb Schachter: like, let’s dig into it. That’s such good questions. Yeah. So, um, I guess what I would say is, and I, again, I didn’t figure this out until one of our, when we did actually our launch, someone asked this question, but it was really helpful for me is I think for so many of my clients, and I think for so many.

Women for sure. And people in general. You know, we live in very sensitive bodies. We take in so much our body, and our body is the longest relationship we are will ever have. So there’s so much sensation that happens in there. And I think for me, and I definitely didn’t know this at the time, I live in a, a very highly sensitive body.

So when I started to feel big things first, they were just, they felt like a lot or too much. And I don’t think. In my family, I was necessarily taught how to manage some of those big feelings. And, and what we often find, to get back to your question about patterns is that often big feelings be come with big sensations, and then those sensations can kind of start to feel like our body is changing because we don’t exactly understand what’s happening when we’re feeling all of this stuff.

Right. It’s all happening. Split seconds and all of a sudden, you know, a, uh, a sort of like giness in our belly, all of a sudden we’re like, oh, my belly feels bigger. Right? There are all these things that happen o often without even, you know, our own interpretation. They, they, they just sort of evolve within, within us as these moments are happening.

So, so for me, I. Think being focused on my body and my body image was a way to manage a lot of the big sensations that I didn’t know how else to discharge or, or, or process or metabolize. Mm-hmm. And it wasn’t until we actually, I mean, I think I always knew that, but it wasn’t until we wrote the chapter where I really got clear around the sort of coupling of emotions and sensations.

What we think about our bodies that I was thinking, oh, that’s what I was doing that whole time. Some of it was about, you know, looking right and looking, having a good butt and whatever. But so much of it was about all of the things that were happening inside me that I didn’t know how else to manage. And so that’s really become my, it’s probably my favorite part of the whole book is getting people and, and the work is getting people back to the sensations.

And it’s something I think about all the time because. For the most part, I’d say, you know, my body image is relatively steady, but my body sensations now, I’m so much more aware of and I have so much more fluctuation because I think my body really senses into so much of what I feel every day. So it, it doesn’t move into the, the body as much from, I mean, it doesn’t move into body image and at this point my body is gonna be what it’s gonna be.

Yeah. Um, I’ve made a lot of peace with that, but, but in terms of the big feelings. That feels so important. So for me, it shows up more now in terms of sensations and tightness and, you know, intention and different ways that I’ve learned to really understand that so much of my emotional life is housed in my body experience.

So that was a long-winded answer, but I, I hope that made sense. Oh, 

Ruth Soukup: really interesting. There’s so much that comes up for me. I mean, there’s so much mindfulness that like that you’re speaking to, of just learning how to sit with those feelings. And I’ve gone through a lot of therapies. So I, 

Deb Schachter: yeah. Relate to 

Ruth Soukup: that.

But, uh, yeah, I mean, a couple things that come out of it for me is number one, like, don’t, don’t you find that you learn what you teach, right? Like what you need to learn is, oh my God, a thousand percent. Feel that so much and I have a second business. That is where I teach online business owners how to successful businesses.

And I always find that I never really understand a concept until I teach it. Right. A system, a concept, whatever I’m teaching. Yeah. It never really gels for me until I start going, okay, how am I gonna teach this to somebody else? 

Deb Schachter: Exactly. Totally, totally. And it was so cool. That’s what was so humbling and amazing about writing the book was that I’ve been doing this for 30 years, but to try and really capture in words, whoa, like I’ve been talking about ways that the language I use is we shape and shapeshift in our families before we’re.

Trying to change our shape, right? We’re already, like if I’m the, you know, again, the quiet one, the accommodating one, the funny one, we’re already shape shifting, and then that moves into this whole other space of like, oh, if I change my body, how might that actually change these dynamics? All of that. I’ve used that language, but I’d never hashed that all out.

And now we use these little, in the workshops, we use these little puzzle pieces and we have everyone write words on them and all this cool stuff that we never would’ve known to do. Right. Yeah. So exactly what you said. It’s so cool to actually like flesh it out. It’s really cool. 

Ruth Soukup: And to, and to realize it, I mean, just even everything that you were saying about just kind of growing up in your body and think, and the way that you process things.

Right. And I think back to my childhood and just the stuff that happened and, and then in high school I did develop an eating disorder, but it was. It was so related to, it was not, it had nothing to do with food. It was everything to do with control and feeling outta control with my family situation and the dynamics and, and my mom, you know, she was mentally ill and so there was a lot of instability and there was just like so much craziness and that was like my thing to like 

Deb Schachter: totally.

Ruth Soukup: Too, and I see it so much now, you look back and you re and like, like I said, lots of therapy, but you go, you go back and kind of like, now realize that those thi same things come up. And even what you were saying about like Exactly, oh, I was always the clumsy one. I was so tall and awkward and those were the words that people would use to describe me.

Right. Like so gangly and awkward and, and I always felt like this, like I was a head taller than everybody else. And that those things always came back later, especially when I, I gained a lot of weight. And became lar larger. Right. And, and so not only was I, did I already feel bigger than everyone now I was overweight and felt like this giant person that was around like, so always, and, and then I felt like everybody around me was tiny and I didn’t, and that was always what would come up to me, right?

Like for me was why am I so big and everybody else is so tiny. 

Deb Schachter: Totally. You 

Ruth Soukup: kind of, and then those are the moments of insecurity that come back over and over again. So. Absolutely. How do you go, like how, where do you go with all of this to to like move past it? 

Deb Schachter: In my own life or with my clients? 

Ruth Soukup: With both.

You can talk about yourself. You can talk about your clients. You can tell me. I mean, I think. 

Deb Schachter: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. So what I would say is, um, you know, really the, the way that the book is laid out is kind of, I think the way we, and again, like you said, the challenge of like, whoa, this is actually how we do this work with people, but is this idea that, you know, we really start to develop a relationship with our body image.

So we call it couples therapy for you and your body image, because there’s so much to be learned there that really, you know. Again, there’s, we often think we are our body image, whatever it says, when in fact we’re really not. There’s a whole other language and story that’s going there, but it’s really important and we’re gonna miss it if we don’t lean in.

So, you know, we have what we call the three muscles where that one of them is mindful awareness, where we’re really having people just start to track that noticing. Oh, my body image is getting louder, and that’s really different to say, God, I look like crap in these pants. I should just wear sweatpants for the rest of my life.

It’s very different than, wow, my body image is really loud. I’m saying really nasty things about myself as I put my pants on. Those are really different, so that’s one of the muscles that’s like our core. You know, that’s where you start. It’s just tracking and noticing these ebbs and flows, and then we move into curiosity, so we have people really start to think about.

What’s happening? Like sort of what I said with Whitney and I back in the day, what’s happening in my life that might be kicking up my body image, it might be activating some of these parts of me because like you said, there’s a lot of, one of our subtitles is called the Hope and Self-Hate. There’s a reason that we, these part, you know, these thoughts get louder because in some way they think if they change us, we’ll feel differently.

So whether if I have this body part, I’ll feel, we call that inside curiosity. So it’s like what fantasy, if I had those legs, what would my body be like? And then we have outside curiosity, which is sort of what’s happening in my life that might be giving me the sense that I. There’s something wrong with me and if I fix it, it’ll be better.

So really delving into that. And then our, our last muscle is compassion, which is really like, oh my God, this makes so much sense. Not just, oh, this sucks, this is so hard to have this body image, language just be so cruel. But also, I. This makes so much sense that if there’s hope and hating myself, no wonder it gets loud.

Oh my gosh. That’s why there’s 20 pairs of pants on my floor and I’m crying. You know, like, there’s something really big happening here. It’s not just about my pants. Um, so, so we do a lot of that and we have that some what we call a rotary, which we actually have people map kind of where they are in that process and learning how to actually shift from just the self-hate into.

Mindful awareness, curiosity and compassion, and trying to really build those muscles just like, um, any muscle in the body. Um, and then we sort of build, build that out into all this relational stuff and really break down sort of what, what were our early mirrors. So in your story. Right. Okay. So if your mom was mentally ill, what, what beliefs did you have about who you needed to be.

To feel connected because at the end of the day, that’s our, all of our currency, right? So whatever that meant, and then really tracking that over time. So originally I learned to fill in the blank. How did that play out? How does that show out now? Who am I around and where does that get activated? You know, really tracking that relational piece.

Mm-hmm. Um, and then the last few chapters of the book are really looking at things like jealousy, really, like who are we jealous of and why? Really exploring that, which is really fun and interesting and not. Yeah, what people think. It will be like actually really digging in again, like if I had Jennifer Aniston’s arms, my life would be great.

So let’s talk about that. Right? All right. That there’s a life attached to those arms, so let’s learn about that. So we do jealousy, we talk about clothing. We have a whole chapter on clothing, which is super fun to write. Wild. Um, you know, ’cause again, I’ve had 30 years of stories about weddings and, you know, proms and, you know, so many feelings about clothing.

And then really ultimately, you know, where we wrap is this idea of, okay, now that you’ve learned all this, now that you know, all you’ve learned more about the ways that your body image is trying to help you instead of torture you. What do you really need? So when you’re around your mother-in-law or whatever, fill in the blank, you know, and she makes me feel really, you know, small and unimportant.

What do you need? Maybe it’s a phone call that you set up with your best friend after. Maybe it’s your favorite yoga class. You know, starting to figure out all the ways that body image is trying to help, and then how do we really resource. The parts of us that really need whatever our body image is desperately trying to help by thinking if we change our body, we’ll feel better.

Ruth Soukup: Yeah. 

Deb Schachter: So that was my, my summary of the book. 

Ruth Soukup: Yeah. I mean, it sounds like so helpful and is, but is it, do you feel like by the end it’s something where you feel like your body image is cured or is it not something that you need to. 

Deb Schachter: Awesome question. It’s one of my favorites. So when we wrote, um, when we wrote the book or the, the publisher wanted us to do a subtitle, so we picked something like, um, I forget what it was originally, but they said the, he, you know how you heal body image.

And we were like, Uhuh, sorry, pal doesn’t work that way. Otherwise I would not have a job. Um, so what, you know, what we really believe is that it’s a practice. That again, we all have bodies and we all have feelings about them, so it’s much more about just like yoga practice or any yoga meditation. It’s, oh, my body image is getting louder.

What’s happening, you know, getting more skillful at practicing those other things. ’cause it’s going to, I mean, not only obviously because we live in this culture, but just because it’s part of how we’ve oriented ourselves and you know, even if people don’t have, you know, heavy duty eating disorders or terrible body image, they, you know, we’ve all kinds of anecdotes where people are just like, I can’t leave the house.

I can’t figure out what to wear. And it’s often because there’s something. Really, you know, emotionally charged that’s happening. And it could be, you know, we have a great story of a, a client of Whitney’s who was just going to a funeral of a friend’s, um, son. And it’s like, what do you wear when your friend has lost their child?

You know, like, of course it has nothing to do with what she wears, but somehow that became the thing. Like, do you, you know, it was just a good example of. Ways that life and how intense it can be can play out in these ways. So it’s all about just really, really continuing to cultivate that curiosity and to bring that more in the world with our kids, our clients, our loved ones.

Um, my husband, I always love it when he’s like, I think we call it Abin, which is a bad body image moment. That’s our, um, kind of short, short name for that, to just keep it really neutral. And, um, I love when he’ll be like, I think I’m having a bim, you know, which is obviously for him, just about like, not.

Finding the right pants for the presentation when he’s really nervous and you know, he’s put on some weight in the winter. But it’s great that then he is like, that’s what’s happening. Right. Instead of just hating on himself. Language 

Ruth Soukup: to talk about it. 

Deb Schachter: Exactly. Exactly. 

Ruth Soukup: Which is so, which is so important.

And I love that too, because it takes away the, the all or nothing thinking, which is so part of just that the whole, the whole problem right. Is 

Deb Schachter: right. E it either or. Exactly. 

Ruth Soukup: All or nothing. Hate 

Deb Schachter: yourself or fix yourself. And those are both impossible. 

Ruth Soukup: Exactly. Exactly. It’s all a journey. It’s all a process.

Yeah. And when you can take that like n need, like I’ve fallen off the wagon and now I’ve screwed up and now I Right. Might as well quit mentality away, then it allows you to keep going. Right? Then you just pick yourself up. You just, okay, let’s what’s happening right now? Exactly. This is not gonna be happening forever.

And I really 

Deb Schachter: Exactly. Exactly. And we talk so much about resonance. That’s really a big piece of the, of the resourcing is learning more about what our, um, one of my favorite quotes is, um, Mary Oliver that we have in there, which is Love your, um, love the soft animal body. Um, your soft animal body love what it loves.

So it’s really that idea, like when we are really. Listening to our body, it does have that wisdom. It does know when we wanna leave the party or quit the job or put on sweatpants, it knows what we need. And so learning more just to listen is, you know, and we’re not socialized around that, right? We’re, we’re socialized around so much hustle, hustle, culture and all of that.

So, um, yeah. So it’s just a different way to be in relationship with your body image. 

Ruth Soukup: I love that. So why do you think it, I mean, self-compassion is so. Difficult for people to like really just kind of allow your body to be right. To like be at peace with it. Yeah. Why do you think that’s so, that’s so hard.

Why are we so hard on ourselves as women 

Deb Schachter: and Yeah. I mean, I think it’s a great. I think it’s an awesome question. I mean, I think, you know, a, I think that we’re so oriented around, um, fixing, you know, we’re just really good at it. I think as women especially, that’s, you know, one of our strengths generally is, is, is seeing something, you know, finding the throughway through messes is, you know, is sort of, uh, I think a, you know, uh, um, say like a superhero skill kind of right.

Power superpower. Um, and I think. We’re given the message that if we do it well, we’re gonna, we’re going to feel better, we’re gonna be more connected, we’re going to be loved, we’re gonna be accepted. So I think it’s really hard to trust that if we really move through the world in more of our own alignment, that, you know, even though you and I know that that’s, those are the kind of people we wanna have around, that we’re gonna have the people who.

We really need around us and really show up whether that’s in the shape of our bodies or in how much we do or don’t do in our days. You know, really trusting that if we’re kind of the right size for us, whatever that means, um, if we show up authentically that, that we’re gonna. You know, that people are gonna really connect us and, and love us.

And so I think there’s a lot of practice there around that process of really. Mm-hmm. And it’s part of why we love the workshop so much is being in a room full of people that have all, um, as one of my clients once said, like, they’ve all been people pleasers and shapeshifters. They’ve all been so oriented around the other and sort of be together and just, I mean, I run a lot of groups too, and I just love them just talking about all of that stuff.

Yeah. Um, and then the only other thing I guess I. ADD is just that, you know, the irony is we’re told how we’re supposed to look, but we also feel a lot of shame about hating ourselves. Mm-hmm. Like, we’re sort of taught to hate ourselves, but we’re, we’re also not supposed to feel that. So it gets really Exactly.

So it’s really dicey. So we talk a lot in the book about really like. Having a lot of compassion for the shame because, um, you know, we think of, we always say body image. Um, negative body image happens in isolation and is healed in connection that so much of this happens in our own shadows. So it really is, is.

Very different again, to come forth and say, we’re all thinking these things. We’re all saying these things, we’re all worried about the same things. Mm-hmm. But how do we, you know, trust that there’s a reason why this is happening? So I think that can also really help remove some of the pathology that can get layered in there.

Like, oh, you hate yourself. You need to, again, you should love yourself. So like, there’s some really good reasons you don’t and, and how do we really help you learn how to. Do that in a more kind of aligned way instead of some kind of woowoo way that isn’t really addressing kind of where the hurt is. 

Ruth Soukup: I can see where that would be so powerful to be, to finally have the space to talk about it openly where, because there is I think, a lot of shame.

I think about even like my totally struggle with my weight and, and you know, I, on in front of the camera and, and doing all these things. I was writing books. Yeah. Running my business and not. Ever sharing anything about my weight and even though it was like an everyday thing, right? Totally. So uncomfortable and ashamed and, and all the stuff that I couldn’t talk about or couldn’t really share, and now I talk about it and obviously ’cause I’ve yeah, become a whole brand for me, but.

Uh, it’s, it was, it’s so freeing to be able to finally talk about like, no, I actually feel terrible about myself. It looked like I was doing great. Exactly. But I actually felt terrible about myself. And, and it’s so funny too when I think about what you said, like. All that time that I struggled, I wasn’t, it wasn’t until I was finally in alignment, until it finally wasn’t about just lose like the quick fix or losing the weight for me, where it was more about, okay, how am I gonna heal my body and how am I gonna nurture my body?

Totally. Where, where am I gonna go from here? And, and like that process was just so, so different. So are your. One day or are they like over an extended amount of time? 

Deb Schachter: Yeah, that’s a, that’s, that’s an awesome question. Um, so we, um, they are currently, one day we have a fantasy someday of doing more of like a, um, retreat.

A retreat somewhere. Yeah, that would be really fun. We’ve looked at a couple spaces. So what we’re really excited about, so we, we do do obviously workshops. We also are doing, this fall we’re doing a training, um, for clinicians, which we’re super excited about. So that’ll be for, I mean, we really want. Anyone to be their therapist, nutritionist, PTs.

I mean, we, we get so many requests from either folks that aren’t in the eating disorder or body image world or in the medical community that they’re, you know, my Pilates teacher, like, they’re all sort of saying, how do we address this when people talk about it, and how do we start to create new language?

So anyway, we’re doing a big training in the fall. One in person in Boston and then one virtually. Um, that’s all that stuff is on our website. And then we also do, um, we don’t have one on the calendar yet, but We’ll, you know, I’m sure we’ll be doing more workshops as well. Um, and hopefully we’re gonna also, now that we’re sort of out of the launch of the book, more trainings that people can also just like watch our shtick and kind of learn a little bit more and do their own version of it in their own time.

Ruth Soukup: That’s amazing. 

Deb Schachter: Yeah. So 

Ruth Soukup: anything else before we wrap up? Anything else we have to know that we didn’t cover? 

Deb Schachter: Um. I don’t, 

Ruth Soukup: I 

Deb Schachter: kind of went off 

Ruth Soukup: script. I told you I was going to. No, 

Deb Schachter: I’m so glad you did. And I feel like I did. I mean, I never know exactly what’s gonna come outta my mouth, but I’m, I’m glad I really, um, I wanted to talk about the muscles because I think sometimes people are like, oh my God, this is so layered and family and blah.

But that basic stuff, really learning how to start to track and notice your body image getting louder and quieter. And then develop, be practicing, just some curiosity about what else, what else is happening in my greater context, what, what might be, you know, triggering me. I think those are some really great places to start.

So I always just like to say to people like, the muscles are a great place to start. 

Ruth Soukup: I love that. And so sim, it’s so simple, and yet I don’t think, we always think about like how powerful it’s to just stop, pause, and pay attention. 

Deb Schachter: Yeah. 

Ruth Soukup: What’s going on right now? What’s going on? Right? And to remove 

Deb Schachter: the judgment, right?

Because it’s like, yeah, without judgment, I feel so, you know, I feel so disgusting, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Instead of like, wow. I, the way that Whitney describes, which I always love, is like, it’s like a newspaper reporter. Like you’re just giving a weather report. Body image is loud saying nasty things.

Great. Okay, let’s start there. That’s really good information. 

Ruth Soukup: I love that language. Just saying it’s really loud right now. Yeah, it’s really loud in here. Yeah. 

Deb Schachter: Yeah, exactly. There’s a lot of shadow going on. Yeah. I love it. 

Ruth Soukup: Well, thank you so much.

You can find Deb at bodyimageinsideout.com, or on Instagram, and can get the book, Body Image Inside Out, HERE.

The post Healing Your Body Image from the Inside Out with Deb Schachter appeared first on Thinlicious.

You spend your whole day thinking about food but trying not to eat it.

It used to be so easy.

You’d cut back for a few days and be right back in your skinny jeans.

But now it feels like your metabolism is just…broken.

And here’s the bad news: Your metabolism IS broken.

But there is some good news too.

It doesn’t have to be broken forever.

But it will mean taking a different approach. And that’s exactly what we’re going to talk about today.

Here’s what you should know about me: I’m a 47-year-old woman who struggled with my weight and health for a very long time, failing one diet after another, until I finally decided to take a radically different approach. 

Instead of starting yet another diet, I started researching. And I quickly learned that almost everything we’ve ever been told about weight loss after 40 is completely wrong.

And that’s exactly the topic I want to dive into directly today—why losing weight after 40 feels like pushing a boulder uphill, and more importantly, what actually works when everything else has failed you. 

Because I know I’m not the only woman out there who has struggled with this.

And what I also know is that if you’re over 40 and struggling to lose weight, you’re not weak, you’re not broken, and you don’t lack willpower. 

You’re fighting against biology that’s been hijacked by decades of terrible advice.

And honestly, it gets me fired up just thinking about it, because I’ve been there. 

I’ve lived that frustration for years, wondering what was wrong with me, why I couldn’t just stick to a stupid diet like everyone else seemed to be able to do.

But once you understand what’s really happening in your body—and how to work WITH it instead of against it—everything changes. 

And we’re going to unpack all of it in a second, but before we dive in I did just want to say real quick that if you’re new here and want to understand exactly how I went from struggling for a decade to losing 49 pounds and keeping it off for years, that I’ve put together a free training that is SO helpful that will walk you through through creating your own personalized health plan. 

You can grab it HERE.

The Frustrating Reality: When Your Body Stops Cooperating

And with that out of the way, let’s dive in.

Because if you’re listening to this episode right now, you probably feel like your body has stopped cooperating with you altogether, right?

After all, you used to be able to skip dessert for a week and zip right back into your favorite jeans. Cut back for a few days after vacation, and boom—back to normal.

But now? 

You’re doing everything you’ve always done, maybe even more, and that number on the scale is either stuck or creeping up. 

Those jeans in your closet are taunting you. And every day feels like a battle you’re losing.

You’re eating salads for lunch while your coworkers demolish pizza. 

You’re dragging yourself to spin class at 6 AM when you’d rather be sleeping. You’re counting every calorie, weighing every portion, drinking so much water you practically live in the bathroom.

All the things the experts tell you to do. 

All the things that used to work.

But your body seems to have other plans.

And the worst part? 

Everyone around you is either struggling with the same thing or offering the same old advice that makes you want to scream. 

Or you’re seeing a million different influencers on Instagram, telling you that it’s your hormones or your cortisol, or that you just need to go on Ozempic and everything will be okay. Don’t eat carbs. Do eat carbs. Get more protein.

It’s enough to make your head spin.

But what’s not always being fully explained or accounted for is the fact that your body at 45 or 55 is not the same as your body at 25. 

The rules have changed, and nobody bothered to give you the new playbook.

In fact, a lot of the advice you’re still getting—especially from the eat less, exercise more crowd—is not just ineffective for women over 40, it’s actually counterproductive. It’s making the problem worse.

And that’s not your fault. You’ve been lied to. We all have.

The Triple Threat: What’s Really Working Against You

So what’s actually happening here? 

Why does it feel like your metabolism just decided to take a permanent vacation?

Well, the truth is that it’s not one thing—it’s a perfect storm of biological changes that hit women after 40. 

And the real kicker is that most doctors don’t even talk about this stuff. 

They’ll tell you to eat less and exercise more, maybe run some basic blood work, and when that doesn’t work, they’ll shrug and say, “Well, this is just what happens as we age.”

That’s crap. And I’m going to tell you exactly why.

The Hormone Hurricane

First up: hormones. 

And I’m not just talking about hot flashes and mood swings, though those are super fun too.

Starting in your late 30s and early 40s, your estrogen and progesterone levels begin their descent. 

And while most people think of estrogen as just a reproductive hormone, it’s so much more than that.

Estrogen helps regulate where your body stores fat and how efficiently you burn it. 

It also affects your insulin sensitivity—how well your cells respond to insulin. 

That means that when your estrogen drops, your body starts hoarding fat like it’s preparing for winter—especially around your middle.

Ever notice how you can eat the exact same way you always have, but suddenly you’re gaining weight in places you never did before? That’s your dropping estrogen at work.

Progesterone, meanwhile, helps regulate your metabolism and reduces water retention. 

It’s also a natural anti-anxiety hormone—it helps you feel calm and sleep well. As it declines, you might notice you’re puffier, more bloated, your metabolism feels sluggish, and you’re more anxious or having trouble sleeping.

And poor sleep? 

That messes with two other crucial hormones: leptin and ghrelin. 

Leptin tells your brain you’re full, while ghrelin tells you you’re hungry. When you don’t sleep well, leptin drops and ghrelin spikes. Translation: you feel hungry all the time and never feel satisfied when you eat.

An as if all that weren’t fun enough, while these helpful hormones are dropping, your cortisol–aka your stress hormone–often goes up. 

Hello, sandwich generation stress, career pressure, and the delightful combination of teenagers and aging parents. Yep, midlife is awesome.

But high cortisol is like yet another fat-storage signal to your body. It’s literally telling your cells, “Hold onto everything, we’re in crisis mode.” 

It also makes you crave sugar and refined carbs because your body thinks it needs quick energy to deal with whatever emergency it thinks you’re facing.

So you’re hungrier, you’re craving junk food, you’re storing fat more efficiently, and you’re not sleeping well. 

So it doesn’t just feel like your body is actively working against your weight loss efforts.

It actually is.

But hormones are only one piece of the puzzle.

The Muscle Mass Mystery

The second piece of the puzzle is muscle loss. 

Starting around age 30, we start losing between 3 and 8% of our muscle mass per decade. 

If you’re sedentary, it can be even more.

Now, you might think, “So what? I don’t want to be bulky anyway.” 

But here’s what you need to understand: muscle is metabolically expensive. 

It burns calories just sitting there, even when you’re sleeping.

Every pound of muscle burns about 6-7 calories per day at rest, while fat burns about 2-3 calories per day. 

So every pound of muscle you lose is like losing a little calorie-burning furnace. 

Your metabolism slows down not because you’re older, but because you have less metabolically active tissue.

And if you’ve been doing what most women do—endless cardio and eating less—you’re actually accelerating muscle loss. When you restrict calories severely and do hours of cardio, your body breaks down muscle for energy. 

This is like putting your metabolism in reverse.

I see this all the time with women who come to me after months of eating 1,200 calories a day and doing cardio six days a week. They’re exhausted, they’re not losing weight, and they’ve actually made their metabolism slower than when they started.

It’s heartbreaking, because they’re working so hard and getting the opposite of what they want.

And just so you know, Ozempic and other similar GLP-1 drugs make you lose a ton of muscle as well. In fact, to me, that’s what makes them so dangerous, beyond even the other more well-known side effects that people talk about.

Losing muscle mass is literally the worst thing you can possibly do for both your current metabolic issues and your future health.

So that’s the second piece you need to understand.

The Insulin Resistance Reality

But the third piece that’s often being ignored, and what I didn’t learn until I started doing my own research is that the biggest factor affecting your ability to lose weight after 40 isn’t your age—it’s insulin resistance.

Studies show that up to 88% of American adults have some degree of metabolic dysfunction, which is just a fancy way of saying your body can’t handle carbohydrates and sugar the way it used to.

Here’s how insulin resistance develops: 

Every time you eat carbs or sugar, your blood sugar rises. Your pancreas releases insulin to shuttle that sugar into your cells for energy. But when this happens repeatedly—like when you eat the Standard American Diet loaded with refined carbs and sugar—your cells start to resist insulin’s signal.

It’s like someone knocking on your door over and over. Eventually, you stop answering. Your cells do the same thing with insulin. So your pancreas makes more insulin, trying to force the sugar into your cells. More insulin means more fat storage.

When you’re insulin resistant, your body is essentially stuck in fat-storage mode. It doesn’t matter how few calories you eat—if your insulin levels are high, your body can’t access stored fat for energy.

It’s like having a full gas tank but a broken fuel line. The energy is there, but your body can’t use it. 

So you feel tired, hungry, and your body keeps storing more fat even when you’re eating less.

And here’s the really frustrating part: insulin resistance gets worse with age, especially for women going through perimenopause and menopause. 

Insulin is also a hormone, and because all your hormones are part of the same interconnected endocrine system, the hormonal changes we talked about earlier make insulin resistance worse, which makes weight gain easier and weight loss harder.

So that’s what I mean by a perfect storm–you’ve got hormones, muscle loss, and insulin resistance all working against you to basically shut down your metabolism, and it’s all coming to a head right as you reach your forties.

But you’re still trying to diet like you’re 25.

The Diet Industry Lie That’s Keeping You Stuck

And this brings me to the biggest lie you’ve been sold about weight loss after 40: 

that it’s still about calories in, calories out.

I cannot tell you how many women come to my TAS program after months or years of eating 1,200 calories a day, feeling hungry and miserable, only to watch the scale refuse to budge.

That was definitely the case for Michelle.

She came to me after two years of tracking every bite, weighing her food, eating tiny portions. She was doing everything “right” according to conventional wisdom. She was eating about 1,100 calories a day and working out six times a week.

And she hadn’t lost a single pound in eight months.

Her doctor told her she needed to eat even less and exercise more. 

Can you imagine? This woman was already eating like a bird and exercising like a maniac, and the medical advice was to do more of what wasn’t working.

Michelle thought she was broken. 

She thought she lacked willpower. 

She was convinced she was just destined to be overweight forever.

But here’s what was really happening: Sarah’s metabolism had slowed down to match her calorie intake. Her thyroid hormones had dropped. Her cortisol was sky-high from the stress of constant restriction and over-exercising. Her body was in full-on starvation mode, clinging to every calorie and storing fat whenever possible.

She wasn’t weak. She just was following advice that was guaranteed to fail.

When you severely restrict calories, especially as a woman over 40, your body goes into survival mode. 

Your metabolism slows down, your hunger hormones go haywire, and your body becomes even more efficient at storing fat.

It’s an evolutionary adaptation that kept our ancestors alive during famines. But in our modern world, where food is abundant but we’re constantly dieting, it’s keeping us fat and frustrated.

This is why 95% of diets fail. It’s why you can “be good” all week and still not lose weight. It’s why that voice in your head keeps whispering that you’re just not trying hard enough.

You are trying hard enough. You’re just using the wrong approach.

What Actually Works: The Science-Based Solution

So if diets don’t work, and willpower isn’t the answer, what is?

The solution is fixing your metabolism by addressing the root cause: hormonal imbalance, but specifically insulin resistance.

When you stabilize your blood sugar and lower your insulin levels, your body can finally access stored fat for energy. 

You become what we call “metabolically flexible”—able to burn both fat and carbs efficiently, instead of being stuck burning only sugar.

This isn’t about another restrictive diet. It’s about retraining your metabolism to work the way it’s supposed to.

The Real Enemy: Sugar and Processed Carbs

So what are the foods that spike your insulin the most? 

Sugar and refined carbohydrates. These include obvious culprits like candy and soda, but also “healthy” foods like whole grain bread, oatmeal, fruit smoothies, and fat-free yogurt.

And let me be clear about something: the food industry has done an incredible job of convincing us that processed junk is healthy. 

Low-fat yogurt with fruit on the bottom? That’s basically dessert with a health halo. Whole grain cereal? Sugar with some fiber sprinkled in.

I was the queen of “healthy” processed foods during my vegetarian years. 

I ate granola for breakfast thinking it was nutritious. I made green smoothies with banana, mango, and dates, convinced I was doing something good for my body. I snacked on energy bars that had 20+ grams of sugar but were marketed as “natural” and “clean.”

Meanwhile, I was gaining weight and feeling terrible, wondering why my supposedly healthy diet wasn’t working.

When you eat these foods, your blood sugar spikes, your pancreas pumps out insulin, and your body gets the signal to store fat. 

If this happens repeatedly—which it does when you eat the Standard American Diet—your cells become resistant to insulin.

And here’s something that’ll blow your mind: artificial sweeteners can be just as bad. 

Sucralose, aspartame, saccharin—these chemical sweeteners can spike insulin just like regular sugar. That diet soda you think is helping? 

It might be making things worse.

The Power of Real Food

So what are foods that keep your insulin stable? 

Real, whole foods that our great-grandmothers would recognize. Meat, fish, eggs, vegetables, healthy fats like avocado and olive oil.

These foods don’t spike your blood sugar. They keep insulin low, which allows your body to access stored fat for energy. They’re also incredibly satiating—you feel full and satisfied without obsessing over portions.

When I finally made the switch from processed “health” foods to real food, everything changed. 

I could eat until I was full and still lose weight. I wasn’t thinking about food every five minutes. My energy was steady throughout the day instead of the constant ups and downs I’d experienced for years.

And here’s the beautiful part: real food tastes amazing. 

Butter, cream, avocado, steak—these aren’t diet foods, they’re delicious foods that happen to support your metabolism instead of sabotaging it.

Why Protein Is Your Secret Weapon

One of the biggest mistakes I see women over 40 make is not eating enough protein. 

We’ve been so brainwashed by the low-fat mentality that we’re afraid of foods that actually help us.

But protein not only helps preserve that precious muscle mass we talked about earlier, it also has the highest thermic effect of all macronutrients. That means your body actually burns calories digesting protein—up to 30% of the calories in protein are burned just processing it.

Protein also keeps you full longer than any other nutrient and helps stabilize blood sugar. When you eat protein with any carbs you do consume, it blunts the insulin response.

After 28 years as a vegetarian, adding protein back into my diet was the key that unlocked my weight loss. 

I’d been getting maybe 40-50 grams of protein a day, thinking beans and quinoa were adequate. But when I started aiming for 100+ grams of high-quality animal protein daily, everything shifted.

Within months of prioritizing protein, I broke through a plateau that had lasted weeks and lost the final 15 pounds to reach my goal. 

My body composition changed dramatically—I was building muscle while losing fat, something that had never happened during my low-protein vegetarian years.

The Metabolic Flexibility Factor

And here’s what I want you to understand about becoming metabolically flexible: it’s not just about losing weight. 

It’s about completely transforming how your body functions.

When your metabolism is working properly, your body can seamlessly switch between burning glucose and burning fat for fuel. This is how we’re designed to function. Our ancestors didn’t have constant access to food, so our bodies evolved to be incredibly efficient at using whatever fuel was available.

But the modern diet—high in processed carbs and sugar, eaten frequently throughout the day—has broken this system for most of us. We’re stuck burning only glucose, which means we’re constantly hungry and always storing fat.

When you become metabolically flexible again, amazing things happen:

Your energy becomes steady throughout the day instead of riding the blood sugar roller coaster. You can go hours without eating and feel fine. 

Your cravings for junk food virtually disappear. Your mood stabilizes because your brain has a consistent fuel source. And yes, weight loss becomes effortless because your body can finally access stored fat.

This is what I mean when I say it’s not about willpower—it’s about biology. 

Fix the biology, and the behaviors follow naturally.

The Real-World Challenge: Why Information Isn’t Enough

And here’s what I’ve learned after helping thousands of women transform their health: knowing what to do and actually doing it consistently are two very different things.

You can read all the books, listen to all the podcasts, understand the science perfectly—but if you don’t have a proven system and ongoing support, you’ll likely end up back where you started.

I see this happen all the time. Someone learns about insulin resistance, gets excited about the science, tries to go low-carb on their own, and then gets overwhelmed or confused and gives up.

Or they do well for a few weeks, hit a plateau, don’t know how to adjust, and assume it’s not working for them.

Or they succeed at losing weight but don’t know how to transition to maintenance, so they either keep restricting and get burnt out, or they go back to old habits and regain the weight.

This is why 95% of people who try to lose weight on their own fail to keep it off long-term. It’s not because they lack willpower—it’s because they lack a system.

Why Systems Beat Willpower Every Time

Here’s the thing about willpower and even good intentions—it’s finite. You can white-knuckle your way through a few weeks, maybe even a few months. 

But eventually, life happens. Stress hits. You get tired. Your willpower crumbles and all your good intentions go out the window.

But systems? Systems are sustainable. 

They take the guesswork out of what to eat, when to eat, and how to navigate the inevitable challenges that come up.

That’s why I created the Thin Adapted System, otherwise known as TAS.

In TAS, we don’t just tell you to “eat low carb.” We guide you through four distinct phases, each with specific goals and timelines. 

We show you exactly how to transition from being a sugar-burner to a fat-burner, step by step.

Phase Zero is all about preparation—getting your mind right, stocking your kitchen, planning for success before you even start changing what you eat.

Phase One is the metabolic reset—the first 4-6 weeks where we’re retraining your body to burn fat instead of sugar. This is where the magic happens, but it’s also where people need the most support because your body is going through a significant transition.

Phase Two is active weight loss—where your body is efficiently burning fat and the pounds are coming off. This phase can last anywhere from a few weeks to several months, depending on how much weight you want to lose.

And Phase Three is metabolic flexibility—the maintenance phase where you have the freedom to enjoy a wider variety of foods while maintaining your weight loss and energy levels.

Each phase has specific macro targets, meal plans, exercise recommendations, and mindset work. You’re never wondering what to do next or whether you’re doing it right.

The Power of Expert Guidance

One of the things I’m most proud of about TAS is our team of certified coaches. These aren’t just people who read a book about nutrition—they’re women who have been through the program themselves and then completed extensive training to help others succeed.

When you hit a plateau, they know exactly how to help you break through. When you’re struggling with cravings, they have strategies that actually work. When life gets chaotic and you’re tempted to give up, they’re there to help you stay on track.

Our head coach, Lisa, came to the program after years of yo-yo dieting. She was a successful businesswoman who felt like she could manage everything in her life except her weight. Sound familiar?

Through TAS, she not only lost 45 pounds and kept it off, but she discovered a passion for helping other women do the same. She went through our certification program and now leads our coaching team.

Lisa always says, “I’m not just teaching you what worked for me—I’m teaching you what works, period. The science doesn’t lie.”

And that’s the beautiful thing about having coaches who’ve walked this path. They understand the emotional challenges, the practical obstacles, the moments of doubt. They’ve been there, and they know how to guide you through it.

The Power of Community and Accountability

One of the most powerful aspects of TAS is the community. When you’re surrounded by women who understand your struggles, who celebrate your wins, and who can offer support when you’re having a tough day, everything changes.

Our TAS Facebook group is filled with women sharing victories, asking questions, and supporting each other through challenges. There’s something magical about not feeling alone in this journey.

As one of our members once said, “I used to think I was the only one who could gain weight by looking at a cookie. Finding this group and realizing that thousands of other smart, successful women have struggled with the exact same things has been life-changing. I don’t feel broken anymore.”

That’s the power of community. When you realize you’re not the only one who’s struggled, when you see other women succeeding with the same challenges you face, it shifts everything.

Our members share meal ideas, troubleshoot problems together, and celebrate non-scale victories like having more energy, sleeping better, or finally getting off blood pressure medication.

Plus, our certified coaches are active in the group every day, answering questions, providing guidance, and offering encouragement. It’s like having a team of experts in your back pocket.

Real Results That Last

The women in our program don’t just lose weight—they transform their relationship with food, their energy levels, and their confidence. They go from feeling defeated and stuck to feeling empowered and in control.

Let me tell you about Janet, who joined TAS at age 52 after struggling with her weight for over a decade. She’d tried every diet imaginable—Weight Watchers, Noom, keto on her own, intermittent fasting, you name it.

Janet lost some weight on each of these approaches, but she always gained it back. She was convinced she was just destined to be overweight and had started to accept that this was just her reality.

When she started TAS, she was skeptical. “I’ve heard all this before,” she told me. “What makes this different?”

What made it different was the comprehensive approach. It wasn’t just about food—it was about mindset, support, and having a clear plan for every phase of the journey.

In her first month, Janet lost 12 pounds. But more importantly, she felt better than she had in years. Her energy was stable, her cravings were gone, and she was sleeping through the night for the first time in months.

By month six, she’d lost 48 pounds and completely transformed her health markers. Her A1C went from pre-diabetic to normal. Her blood pressure normalized. Her doctor was amazed.

But here’s the best part: two years later, Janet has maintained her weight loss and continues to feel amazing. She’s not white-knuckling it or fighting cravings. This is just how she lives now.

And that’s what I mean when I say this isn’t a diet—it’s a lifestyle transformation.

More importantly, they keep the weight off. Because when you address the root cause—insulin resistance and metabolic dysfunction—instead of just restricting calories, the changes stick.

The Path Forward: Your Next Step

Look, I get it. You’ve probably tried so many things that worked for a while and then stopped working. You might be skeptical that anything can help at this point.

I felt the same way when I hit 201 pounds at age 43. I’d failed at so many diets that I genuinely believed I was just destined to be overweight forever.

I remember looking at that photo my neighbor posted on Facebook—the one where I looked heavier than I’d ever looked in my life—and thinking, “Maybe this is just who I am now. Maybe I need to accept this and buy bigger clothes.”

But something in me refused to give up. Maybe it was stubbornness, maybe it was desperation, but I decided to give it one more shot. Not another diet, but a completely different approach.

And changing my approach—focusing on hormones instead of calories, healing instead of restricting—changed everything. Four years later, I’m 49 pounds lighter and have more energy than I had in my 30s.

But more than that, I have freedom. Freedom from obsessing about food, freedom from shame about my body, freedom from the constant cycle of restrict-and-binge that dominated my life for so long.

And here’s what I want you to understand: you’re not too old, it’s not too late, and you’re definitely not too broken to fix this.

Your body wants to be healthy. It wants to burn fat efficiently, regulate hormones properly, and give you sustained energy. You just need to give it the right conditions to do what it’s designed to do.

The Science Is Clear

The research on insulin resistance, metabolic dysfunction, and hormonal changes in women over 40 is overwhelming. We know what’s causing the problem, and we know how to fix it.

A 2019 study published in the Journal of Clinical Medicine found that women who followed a low-carb approach lost significantly more weight and improved their metabolic markers compared to those following a low-fat diet.

Another study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition showed that protein intake becomes even more critical for women over 40 to preserve muscle mass and maintain metabolic rate.

And research published in Diabetes Care demonstrated that addressing insulin resistance through dietary changes is more effective than calorie restriction alone for sustainable weight loss in postmenopausal women.

The science isn’t debatable anymore. What’s been debatable is how to implement these findings in a sustainable, realistic way for busy women juggling careers, families, and everything else life throws at us.

That’s where TAS comes in.

Ready to Stop Fighting Your Biology?

If you’re tired of fighting against your body and ready to work with it instead, the Thin Adapted System is your roadmap. It’s not another diet—it’s a complete lifestyle transformation with the science, support, and step-by-step guidance you need to succeed.

We’ve helped thousands of women over 40 not just lose weight, but completely transform their health and their lives. Women who thought they were broken, who’d given up hope, who believed their best days were behind them.

And we can help you too.

To learn more about TAS and see if it’s right for you, check out that free training I told you about earlier–it’s linked in the show notes. I’ll walk you through exactly how the program works, share success stories from women just like you, and show you how it can help you finally break free from the cycle of failed diets and reclaim your health.

Final Thoughts

Before we wrap up, I want you to remember this: struggling to lose weight after 40 isn’t a character flaw or a sign of weakness. It’s biology. It’s hormones. It’s decades of following advice that was never going to work for your changing body.

The deck has been stacked against you from the start. The food industry has filled our grocery stores with processed junk disguised as health food. The medical establishment has clung to outdated advice that ignores hormonal changes. The fitness industry has convinced us that more is always better, even when it’s making us worse.

But now you know better. You understand that it’s not about eating less—it’s about eating right. It’s not about more willpower—it’s about better strategy. It’s not about fighting your body—it’s about healing it.

You have the power to change this story. To go from feeling defeated and stuck to feeling vibrant and confident. To stop letting your weight hold you back from living the life you want.

Your metabolism isn’t broken forever. Your best days aren’t behind you. And you’re definitely not too old to transform your health.

But it requires a different approach than what you’ve been taught. It requires understanding your body’s biology instead of fighting against it. It requires support and guidance instead of trying to figure it out alone.

And most importantly, it requires believing that you’re worth the effort. Because you are.

The woman you’re meant to be—energetic, confident, healthy, free—she’s still there. She’s been waiting for you to stop fighting yourself and start healing yourself.

Today can be the day you stop settling for feeling stuck and start creating the vibrant, healthy life you deserve

The post Why It’s So Hard for Women to Lose Weight After 40 (And What Actually Works) appeared first on Thinlicious.

Today we’re chatting with Doctor Neil Nathan, a board certified family physician with over. 50 years of experience treating some of the most complex, misunderstood chronic illnesses out there, including things like mold toxicity, Lyme disease, and chronic fatigue.

He’s the author of several powerful books, including Toxic and Healing is Possible, and he’s especially passionate about helping patients who’ve been told there’s nothing more that can be done. By getting to the real root causes of what’s going wrong in the body, and today’s conversation is eye-opening.

We dive deep into how environmental toxins like mold, heavy metals, and even parasites can impact your energy, your hormones, your brain, and why just detoxing? Isn’t nearly enough. If you’ve been struggling with mystery symptoms or feel like no one’s listening to you, this is going to be a total game changer.

I can’t wait for you to hear this conversation, so let’s get right into it. Neil, thank you so much for being on the podcast with me. I’m so excited to dive in with you today. 

Dr. Neil Nathan: Right. Thanks for having me. 

Ruth Soukup: Yeah. So let’s just start kind of with the background. I’d love to know just your history of who you are, what you do, and how you got to be doing what you are now.

Dr. Neil Nathan: Um, how much time do you have? 

Ruth Soukup: I know you’ve been doing this a long time. 

Dr. Neil Nathan: Okay, so I went to medical school with the mistaken. Impression that I would learn how to be a healer. That’s what I wanted to do, and I was kind of surprised and disappointed that that’s not what they were gonna teach me in medical school.

They were gonna teach me to be what I will call a medical technician. So what I wanted to learn. I learned a bit of, and I got my credentials. So I’m a board certified, um, md, um, and I’ve been, um, an expert in what’s called pain management, integrative holistic medicine, as well as family practice, which I, I’ve done.

And my interest has always been in helping people that other people didn’t know how to help again. Uh, probably a little bit odd in that re in that regard, but, um, so my colleagues from a very early time, and I’ve been doing this for over 50 years, my colleagues, um. Would refer their difficult patients to me so that I could try to figure out what, what did they miss?

What could they have that we could diagnose and treat successfully? Um, and so that’s been my theme, uh, throughout my life. Um. So I’ve studied a lot of things that other doctors haven’t studied, and honestly, I’ve helped a lot of people because I’ve been willing to, if you will, play medical detective and dig into things that other people, uh, weren’t even aware of.

So at this point, my practice has evolved to the point that, again, um, other physicians, uh, will consult with me about their most complicated and difficult patients, and I’ll try to tease apart. From the testing that they’ve had and what they’ve done, uh, what are we missing? What does this person have, what have they been exposed to that maybe you haven’t thought about?

And so I treat a lot of, um, mold toxicity, Lyme disease, autism, um, a lot of pain problems that pain specialists haven’t quite figured out. Um, that’s kind of what I do. 

Ruth Soukup: It’s so interesting and it’s so, uh, it’s so interesting to me how few doctors in this day and age are willing to like really dig in and do the research.

Do you find that you work primarily with more functional health doctors or are you working with kind of doctors all across the board who are asking these questions? 

Dr. Neil Nathan: Well, most functional or integrative doctors are more aware of what I do, so they’re much more, um. On how I could help them. I would say that most conventional doctors have no idea what I do and wouldn’t seek me because they have no idea about information that they’re, um, absolutely not on their radar.

Right. 

Ruth Soukup: Yeah, it’s, which is really sad, a sad state. Um, but we won’t go in that, and we won’t go into that today because that would be a whole other, whole other episode. A lot of. Patients and clients who are just kind of at the end of their rope, then if they feel like they’ve been seeing a doctor even go diving in with a functional health doctor who typically will go much deeper with you than a regular doctor and you’re, they’re still not finding answers.

And what is that like? I mean, is it, i, is it, there must be just so much emotion that comes from working with clients who, who feel like they have tried everything in or at the end of their rope. 

Dr. Neil Nathan: Yeah, these are people who just don’t feel like anyone’s really listened to them. Um, most of them have been written off by multiple physicians or healthcare providers, and, um, they’ve been told, this has gotta be in your head because you’re too complicated.

Um, and they know. Intuitively that no, there’s something really wrong with me and you all haven’t figured it out yet. So most people have nowadays. In the early days this didn’t happen. But since I’ve written a whole bunch of books, a lot of people find me through my books where they went, you know, you, I think you understand where I’m coming from and I think you understand what my journey has been like.

Um, so that most people come to me with a sense of at least hope. That. Okay. Maybe you will figure this out and help me get well, and I think I bring that to the table. I think because I’ve helped thousands of people, I. Over the years, I come to the table with the idea that together we will figure this out.

We will, I will go over your information in more detail than other people have, and there’s gonna be an answer in here. We just have to know what to look for. So, although people do come to me frustrated, kind of giving up sometimes on the medical profession, um, they’ve had. Thousands of dollars of testing that hasn’t given them an answer.

Most people come to me with the sense of, I, I think you can help me. I think you can figure this out. So yes, they’re gun shy, but there’s always hope in there that we can make this happen. 

Ruth Soukup: Yeah. So where do you, where do you typically start then? Do you typically have an idea just when they come to you of what, what symptoms are mold related and, uh, or toxin related?

Like how do you, do you immediately kind of know, or is there things that you’ve just seen so many times over and over again? Like where, where do you begin? 

Dr. Neil Nathan: A little of both. So, um, I mean, having done this for a very long time. There are certain patterns that I’ve learned or ways in which, uh, patients describe what’s going on that immediately light up.

Ah, we haven’t looked at this yet, or we haven’t looked at this yet. Um, if you will, you could call it pattern recognition of just having, having seen thousands of people with mold toxicity and Lyme disease and you name it. Um, there’s a. I, I don’t think patients are aware that there’s a pretty common thread through all of those, that if you are aware of what the condition is, it lights up immediately.

For example, there are certain symptoms that, um. Mold or lime or, and there’s nothing else. Example. Um, some people will describe the perception that they have an internal vibration going on in their body. It’s not visible. They’re not, they’re not tremoring, they’re not shaking, but they feel this internal vibration now that’s always mold toxicity or a co-infection of Lyme disease called bartonella.

Interesting. Um, other people will describe electrical pains or electrical sensations or an ice pick like pain, and that’s mold toxicity until proven otherwise. And, uh. On another plane, if someone has been a pretty solid citizen all their life and kind of out of the blue, they’ve become anxious or depressed or have OCD, or they have a feeling like they’re not themselves anymore, which we call derealization or depersonalization, that’s again, mold or lime as examples.

So there’s. The story that the individual gives me contains within it, the seeds for figuring it out. Um, and it’s just about having the experience of having seen. This ’cause the patients will go well, no one’s ever had anything like what I have. A lot of my patients think, yeah. Oh, I’m so special. You have never seen anything like this.

Ruth Soukup: Yeah. 

Dr. Neil Nathan: And I’m usually smiling when I hear that and going, you have no idea. I’ve 

Ruth Soukup: seen, I’ve seen it all. I’ve seen, 

Dr. Neil Nathan: I don’t know that I’ve seen it all, but I’ve seen it hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of times. That what you’re describing and, and you’re not alone. You just haven’t gone to see someone who, um, had what I’ll call this pattern recognition.

Ruth Soukup: Right. Right. So what, it’s interesting to me though, that you’re talking so much about Lyme disease and mold toxicity having similar symptoms because. I mean, and clearly I’m not an expert in, in either of these things, but as I understood it, Lyme disease, it comes from ticks. Is that not, not correct? Yeah.

And, but they’re, but they have similar responses in the body, or how does that work? 

Dr. Neil Nathan: So, so Lyme disease is a bacterial infection. Oh. And mold toxicity is a toxin. And so you might say, why would they look so similar? Symptomatically? Um, and I’m gonna throw in that long haul. COVID has similar symptoms to all of this and okay.

Ing, and that’s a virus. So you have these different. Causes creating very, very similar pictures, and the answer is a real simple one. All three conditions. Force the immune system to make what are called inflammatory cytokines to fight that condition. And the pattern of those cytokines is very, very similar.

So all three. Have the same cause. Even though you might say that the immediate effect is lost, they’re different. But really what they’re all being triggered by and caused by is the same. And so we need to understand the whole concept of inflammatory cytokines because that’s where almost all chronic illness comes from.

And we’re just learning that now. 

Ruth Soukup: Yeah. Interesting. So, well, let’s start with, with mold. Why is like, why is the mold exposure such a big deal? Like, where is this coming from? Why, how is this not like, is this a super common thing? Do people know how to fight against it? Did, how do you know that you’ve been exposed to mold and how, how do you avoid that?

Dr. Neil Nathan: Okay. Um. So first of all, mold toxicity is far more common than people realize. Yeah. It’s estimated that there are 10 million Americans who have mold toxicity right now, and most of them have no idea. Okay. Second, most homes. Not most, a large percentage of homes in this country have mold in them to which people are being exposed.

Studies done by the federal government have shown that 47% of the homes in this country have visible or smell mold somewhere in their, to which people are being exposed. So what we’re saying is, this is not rare, this is not, but it’s. It’s still not known despite what I’m giving you. Um, the majority of physicians, this has not crossed their radar as something they need to be aware of, and so again.

If your immune system is robust, you can fight it off. You can be in a moldy environment. You can do okay and be, but if your immune system takes a hit, now that hit could be childbirth, menopause, a severe infection surgery, an emotional trauma loss of a loved one, whatever gets the immune system to take a hit, and all of a sudden it loses containment and now.

The toxins, which are already in the body, and now they’re running rampant and will do all kinds of things to the body. So it would help your listeners to know that mold toxicity can cause symptoms of virtually everything you can think of because these inflammatory, uh, cytokines are systemic. They will go to whatever a person’s weakest area is so that, um, they could be respiratory symptoms that could be causing, um.

An asthma like condition and shortness of breath, chest pain, they can cause a lot of cognitive impairment, brain fog, focus, memory concentration. In fact, you’re probably aware of the groundbreaking work done by Dale Bredesen in the area of um, Alzheimer’s disease. So you’re, you’re nodding like you’re not, so let me tell you about that.

Um, Dale Bredesen is a neur, my name is a neurologist who several years ago realized that the medical profession was going after treating Alzheimer’s the wrong way because they weren’t understanding what was causing it. Once again, inflammation is the trigger for this, and he worked out 36 different imbalances in the body.

Some of them nutritional, some of them being infections, some of them toxins, that if you measured them and treated them, you could cure or markedly improve Alzheimer’s in a huge percentage of patients. Wow. And he’s published many papers on it. For your listeners, he has a wonderful book called The End of Alzheimer’s Disease, which you should know about.

And what Dale found early on was that mold toxicity was a cause in 60% of those patients. 

Ruth Soukup: Whoa. 

Dr. Neil Nathan: Now with additional research and many years into the field, he would put it at 90%. No kidding. So a common illness that freaks people out, that decimate families, that’s horrific. 

Ruth Soukup: Yeah. Might 

Dr. Neil Nathan: be way more treatable than people realize because they’re not looking in the right place for the cause.

So in our patients with Alzheimer’s, for example, once again, mold toxicity and Lyme disease or major causes along with heavy metal toxicity and in women hormonal, um, hormonal deficits. So that if you address those things, a huge percentage of people who are going down the road of getting Alzheimer’s, you can turn that around either completely or.

Enough so that people really get their life back. So yeah. 

Ruth Soukup: That’s amazing. So, and that’s, that’s the statistics I haven’t heard. Now I have heard that, that about the inflammation and, and, and, you know, insulin resistance and the fact that Alzheimer’s is being referred to as type three diabetes and all of that stuff.

But the mold, this, the mold thing is not a common conversation that’s happening. Why do you think that is? If it’s this common and it’s this. Prevalent in society. I mean, what you’re talking about, it’s 48% of houses, 60% of houses. That’s, that’s a lot of people. And w why so why is not, why are not more people talking about this?

Dr. Neil Nathan: A, I don’t know, B new. And we’ve really only learned about this in the last 20 years. I mean, for decades, um, we’ve. We’ve known about mold allergy. That’s that’s well known in medicine. It’s been treated for a very long time. But mold toxicity is a relatively new concept, even though it’s actually written about in the Bible.

There’s a sectional Leviticus where they talk about if someone is living in a moldy home, do everything you can to clean it up. But if you can’t burn it to the ground, 

Ruth Soukup: really it’s Now I’m gonna have to go look that up. Borrows devotions. Yeah, 

Dr. Neil Nathan: it’s there. Um, I don’t make up any of this stuff. It’s, it’s there.

My answer to your question is that new drugs, new technology has a huge economic thrust to push it into the public knowledge. New information is not embraced by medicine at all. I mean at all, and maybe that shocks people, but the history of all science and medicine is that if a new piece of information emerges, the first thing that the old guard does is deny that that exists.

It’s like, no, no, no. That can’t be true. That’s not possible. Then it usually takes about 20 years for a new concept to be accepted by the medical profession. When the medical profession decides that enough research has been done in this area to justify that as something where it’s studying. And so I get a lot of, when I talk with patients and other doctors, some doctors will say, well, if this was.

Valid information. They would’ve taught that to me in medical school. I’m going, yeah, I went to medical school 50 years ago. Um mm-hmm. This wasn’t on anybody’s radar at that particular point. So you’re telling me that if it wasn’t taught to you in medical school, there’s nothing new that’s coming down the pike that’s worth knowing and yet I know it sounds crazy.

That is what I get a lot of by physicians or if this was valid, they would’ve presented it to me at my yearly specialty, uh, medical update, but which was paid 

Ruth Soukup: for by the pharmaceutical companies. 

Dr. Neil Nathan: Nobody’s doing that. 

Ruth Soukup: Yeah. 

Dr. Neil Nathan: So, um, Lyme disease appeared on the, on our radar about 30, 35 years ago, and it is just now being embraced as a very real thing.

Example, it wasn’t until 2013 that the CDC officially recognized that there were 300,000 new cases of Lyme every year. 

Ruth Soukup: Oh wow. So that’s 

Dr. Neil Nathan: a bigger epidemic than AIDS ever was. Yeah, but they were, that’s only 13 years 

Ruth Soukup: ago. 

Dr. Neil Nathan: They revised that in 2023, that there’s now 675,000 new cases of Lyme every year. Wow.

So we’re talking epidemics here that are not being recognized by the medical profession. And yes, this is a travesty, but yes, this is how medical information evolves. Mm-hmm. So, um. It’s not something that people know unless you get a, an odd duck like me going on a podcast and talking about it. 

Ruth Soukup: So what is the treat, what is the treatment for this stuff?

I mean, if, if, if, well, so similar is the treatment similar to. 

Dr. Neil Nathan: Now, let me back, let me back up. Okay, so first of all, I only covered a couple of things on symptoms. Yeah. So in addition to cognitive impairment and respiratory symptoms, um, uh, psychological issues, anxiety, depression, OCD, you name it. Um. Every type of gastrointestinal symptom possible.

A gas, bloating, distension, diarrhea, constipation, abdominal pain, neurological symptoms, peripheral neuropathy, um, visual disturbances, uh, literally almost any part of the body that you can imagine can be affected by mold toxicity. Okay, so just it’s so much that. Many physicians, if you walk in and you give them your list of symptoms, their first thing is nothing causes all of that.

So this has gotta be in your head. But the answer is no, it’s not. This is, this is not that at all. Now, this is not hard to diagnose, okay? There’s a very simple urine test where you can collect your urine, mail it to any of several laboratories. They can test that for you and. Tell you whether there’s mold toxin in your urine.

It’s really simple. If there is, 

Ruth Soukup: you don’t even need a prescription for it. You can just request it. 

Dr. Neil Nathan: The test that I think is the most accurate is the real time test, which is covered by Medicare, for example. Oh, so it’s not even that expensive. So yes, you can get a simple urine test and know that this mold is in your body.

Not only will we know that it’s there, but we will actually know which mold toxins, ’cause there’s dozens of them. We’ll know which ones are there. Based on which ones we see there. We also know that there are specific, we’ll call them binders that are materials you can take to pull those toxins out of the body.

And those are some simple things like charcoal, bentonite, clay, um, chlorella, sacro, mises, burlar. There’s also some medications which are helpful in that particular regard and. One minor other piece of information. If someone is in a moldy environment for a long period of time, it will colonize in that person’s body, meaning it will start to grow and their sinus or gut areas.

So a lot of what are thought of as bacterial sinus infections are not. That was figured out by the Mayo Clinic in 1999 that what people were calling bacterial sinus infections. And there are some, largely the chronic ones were, were mold. 

Ruth Soukup: Interesting. And 

Dr. Neil Nathan: so again, uh, these are things that the medical profession is slowly embracing, but.

The unfortunate word there is slowly. 

Ruth Soukup: Yeah. 

Dr. Neil Nathan: So we do know how to diagnose it. We do know how to treat it and. From your audience. Um, one of the things that both mold toxicity and Lyme disease do is they affect the pituitary’s ability to balance our hormones. So almost any hormonal imbalance may have either a mold or Lyme cause to it.

So you could try to balance these hormones and if you’re having trouble doing it, it may be ’cause you’re not fixing what’s messing it up in the first place. 

Ruth Soukup: That’s good to know. Yeah, because I think I see that a lot with my clients, right? When they start changing the way they eat, and that helps to some extent, but then they’re still struggling with like, I’m doing all the things right?

I’m eating all the right things. I’ve been doing this for a while. I’m still not dropping the weight. What you’re saying is this could be right, a mold issue on top of. Insulin resistance and poor gut health. Probably the mold issue is contributing to the poor gut health sounds like. 

Dr. Neil Nathan: Exactly, and in functional medicine, the rule of starting is you start with the gut and fix it so everything else can follow.

Ruth Soukup: The 

Dr. Neil Nathan: exception to that is mold toxicity. If you have mold toxicity, you will not be able to successfully fix the gut until you get the mold out of there. 

Ruth Soukup: Yeah, that makes sense. And 

Dr. Neil Nathan: these are things that not a lot of people know, but should, but. 

Ruth Soukup: Yeah, no, nobody, I mean, I talk about this stuff every day and this is, this is new information, so, so you’re saying the way that you treat the mold depends on the type of mold that it is.

So in order to find out what type of mold toxicity you might have, do the urine test and there’s a test that you can take or you can order it and we will, can we link to that in the show notes? The, the one that you recommend? Yes. So that people, I’m taking the test. I wanna know this is, uh, this is in, this is incredible.

Yeah. And so is the treatment then, what is the treatment for Lyme disease? Is it similar to 

Dr. Neil Nathan: that’s, no, that’s completely different. Completely different. So even though the 

Ruth Soukup: symptoms are similar and they present similar, it’s totally different treatments. Exactly. So how do you know which one is which? Just the testing.

Dr. Neil Nathan: We have tests that will distinguish them. So there are, again, laboratory tests for Lyme disease. Now, some of the routine tests for Lyme that you might get from LabCorp or Quest or from your local hospital are really, really lousy tests. Um, I, I could go into detail why that’s the case, but there are specialty labs that do a much, much, much, much better job.

Okay. The simple answer to that is when these tests were first developed, we only knew that there was one kind of Lyme bacteria, which is technically called Borrelia burgdorferi, right? So all of those tests that are in common use were developed solely for that species. Unfortunately, as we’ve evolved here, we know that there are 30 plus species of Lyme disease.

Oh wow. And that if you only are testing for the burgdorferi, you’re gonna miss it a lot. So the newer tests, hygienics, for example, is a laboratory that is particularly, uh, pioneered this work so that they will test for dozens of species of. Of Lyme, which is technically Borrelia, so that, um, you will miss it with Quest or lab.

90 plus percent of the time. And so many, many people who thought they had Lyme disease, they were bitten by a tick, they had a rash, they got sick. They’ll go in, they’ll get tested for it, and they’ll say, now you test negative, you didn’t get the right test. 

Ruth Soukup: Mm-hmm. 

Dr. Neil Nathan: So, um, it’s important that people know that there are better tests than others.

And again, Lyme is completely different because it is a bacteria. 

Ruth Soukup: Right, and 

Dr. Neil Nathan: it’s much more complicated than that. I don’t know how much you want me to get into it, but when you’re bitten by a tick, it injects the contents of its stomach into you. And if they, it’s not just the Lyme bacteria in there, but there’s other bacteria that they inject also, uh, Bartonella, Oria, and a plasma, some viruses and a parasite called Babesia.

So it’s Lyme disease isn’t just this simple bacterial infection. It’s this mishmash of whatever the Tick had in it. When it bit you. But these require a different approach. ’cause these are infectious agents, so they require antibiotics of different types. Uh, they require herbal supplementation of different types.

We have to improve people’s ability to detoxify from killing these various organisms. So forgive me, it’s a little bit complicated. Um, but there’s a whole group of physicians that are trained now to do this. They’re not the ones you’re gonna meet in the emergency room. They’re not the ones that are gonna be your family doc.

So, um, be careful if you think you were bitten by a tick and we’re told, oh, I checked you and you’re fine. Oh, I doubt it. 

Ruth Soukup: Yeah. Like, be willing to advocate for yourself. I think it, it always comes back to that. Yes. Get a second opinion, get a third opinion. Do the research. What on, on who you might need to talk to.

I mean, that’s how people are finding you, right? They’re read, they’re reading your book, they’re going, this person understands what I’m talking about. And I think that’s so true and I, I, I see that a lot and you know, just friends who are dealing with different things is that sometimes they’re just not, and they just accept that first diagnosis, oh, my doctor said this, and they take it at face value.

And I, I. That’s not my personality. So I’m like, no, come on, let’s, let’s do a little more research. Let’s figure this out. Let’s go, let’s ask somebody else and, and, and look into this a little bit deeper. But you have to, you have to advocate for yourself or no one else is gonna do that for you. I do have a question though.

About, I don’t know if this is something that you see a lot too, but I have been seeing a lot. I, I’m on X quite a bit or what, formerly known as Twitter and, and I think I get a lot of alternative health things. My algorithm is trained to give me a lot of alternative health things and so. I see a lot about parasites.

How does that play into any of this? Like are you on the parasite band bandwagon, do you think? ’cause according to, according to what? To half the people on X, everything that is making us sick is parasites. Have you heard this at all? And um, I don’t know that I believe, I do fully believe that. But I am curious to know, like your thoughts, especially given your.

Your breadth and depth of, of knowledge on kind of the, the problems that other people are be able to fix what you’ve seen with that? 

Dr. Neil Nathan: That’s a very complicated question. Um, I have colleagues who see and treat parasites much more often than I do. 

Ruth Soukup: Mm-hmm. 

Dr. Neil Nathan: I’ve been aware of it for my whole 50 years of practice.

The problem is the test that is available sucks. It’s, it just won’t pick them up. But I have, when I thought it was even possible that people had parasites, I have treated them aggressively for it, and rarely has that been helpful in my experience. So I, but keep in mind. Patients find us energetically. I don’t know or understand how that happens, but the people who come to me somehow have a sense that I can help them and they will have a particular, um.

Makeup that allows me to help them. And so I call that water seeking its own level. Yeah. Whoever blames me, I can probably help. Yeah. Don’t know how that happens, but 

Ruth Soukup: Yeah. Well, I think it happens when, you know, as you’re describing those symptoms and you’re describing the people that you are helping, that they hear themselves in that.

Right. And I’m sure there are people listening right now who are, who have heard themselves in everything that you’ve described, whereas other people are like, oh, this is interesting, you know. And there’s gonna be those few. And, and, and that is, that is why, why you come on here, why you talk to it, why you wanna get that out there so that, so that the right people can find can find the right answer.

That’s why we do these episodes. But yeah, this is just so interesting. 

Dr. Neil Nathan: The people who seek me have not been. Particularly high in parasites. I’ve treated a few throughout my career, but I don’t see it a lot. I have other colleagues who I deeply respect who see it a lot more than I do and think it’s a lot more common.

So yeah, I think the answer to your question is the truth lies somewhere in the middle here. Um, probably it is underdiagnosed. It isn’t treated as much. Is it the major cause of everything going on in this world? Absolutely not. 

Ruth Soukup: Okay. Good to know. So you wouldn’t recommend then, based on your experience doing a, a proactive parasite cleanse?

That’s not, that’s taking it a little far. I, 

Dr. Neil Nathan: I have done that on countless patients over the years, and in my perception, it has not helped almost anyone. But I did it even on myself at one point. 

Ruth Soukup: You did. 

Dr. Neil Nathan: I did. So, no, I don’t think that we all need to be doing that. I, I think there’s potential harm to doing that.

Um, so I, it doesn’t make sense to me to just assume that we all have parasites because honestly, I, I don’t believe that’s the case. 

Ruth Soukup: Interesting. Interesting. Well, Dr. Nathan, this was all very, very interesting and I just am so grateful to you for coming on. Um, before we wrap up, I would love to know, first of all, is there anything else that you think that we need to know that we didn’t cover?

And second. Where can we find out more? Where can we get your books? All of, of course we will link to everything in the show notes, but I’d just love to know how we can get more information and for anybody who was, who was listening and just was like hearing themselves as you spoke, I would love to know how they can follow up.

Dr. Neil Nathan: Okay. Well. I have a whole bunch of books that I’ve written. Um, one book that would cover this subject is my book called Toxic. Um, it’s subtitled Heal Your Body for mold toxicity, Lyme disease, multiple Chemical Sensitivity, and other environmental, um, exposures. Um. That book’s been a bestseller and, um, we’re gonna have a second edition out this summer.

I’ve written seven new chapters and updated the information, but that book would probably be a good place to start. Um. For people who have become unusually sensitive, where they can’t take medications or supplements or things like others can, or they’re more and more sensitive to smells, chemicals, or light.

My new book is called The Sensitive Patient’s Healing Guide, and it goes into. What’s causing all of that and from knowing the causes, how to treat that. So those things are now much more treatable. Um, I do have a website, which is simply neilnathanmd.com. Um, and I do do consultations with, uh, patients and their primary treating physician if, um.

People need me to. So, um, 

Ruth Soukup: that’s great. That’s great to know. 

Dr. Neil Nathan: I, I’m, I’m out there somewhere. There’s, I, I’ve got dozens and dozens and dozens of podcasts out there in the, in cyberspace somewhere. 

Ruth Soukup: And people find you and awesome. I love it. So of course, like I said, we will link to all of those resources in the show notes as well as the urine test that you recommended.

So if anybody wants to test their urine the way that I do to find out whether or not you have mold toxicity, um, you’ll be able to do that as well. Um, again, Dr. Nathan Neil, thank you so much for joining me today. This was fantastic information and I just appreciate you. 

Dr. Neil Nathan: Thank you for having me. 

The post Mold Toxicity, Lyme Disease, & the Hidden Hazards That May Be Keeping You Sick with Dr. Neil Nathan appeared first on Thinlicious.

And suddenly, it’s ALL you can think about—that donut you saw in the break room, or the pint of ice cream in your freezer, or the leftover halloween candy you hid from your kids.

Welcome to sugar addiction and—news flash—even if your cravings aren’t for sweet things, but other high carb foods like bread or pasta or potato chips—it still comes down to sugar.

The good news is that there IS a way to break free and retrain your brain, which is why in this episode we’re going to take a dive deep into the science of sugar addiction, and talk about what’s really going on in your body and your brain when you consume sugar, and how you can use that knowledge to your advantage to actually RESET your brain and get off the sugar rollercoaster for good.

If this is your first time reading the Thinlicious blog, here’s what you should know about me: 

I’m a 47-year-old woman who struggled with my weight and health for ten long years, failing at diet after diet, until I finally decided to take a radically different approach.

Instead of starting yet another diet, I started researching. 

And I quickly learned that almost everything we’ve ever been told about health and weight loss is totally wrong. 

We’ve been lied to for the last 70 years. And it’s had a devastating effect on our health.

So I changed the way I ate. 

I stopped focusing on calories and started worrying about HORMONES. And I lost 49 pounds without dieting or Ozempic or making myself miserable, and now I’ve kept that weight off for years.

But that journey changed me. 

I’m obsessed with helping women over 40—like you—ditch the crap holding you back and find real freedom through transforming your health.

And today’s topic? It’s personal. 

Because I also spent years being a slave to sugar cravings, thinking I just had a “sweet tooth” and that it was totally normal to think about food all the time.

I remember those afternoons when I’d be sitting at my desk, trying to work, but all I could think about was that box of cookies or bag of Doritos lurking in the pantry. 

I’d try to ignore it, tell myself I was being good, but eventually I’d cave. And not just have one cookie—I’d eat half the box, or the whole bag of chips, then feel guilty and ashamed for the rest of the day.

Or those nights when I’d finish dinner, feeling satisfied, only to find myself back in the kitchen an hour later, searching for something sweet. 

Ice cream, leftover cake, even just a spoonful of peanut butter with honey—anything to satisfy that relentless craving.

Maybe that’s where you are right now. You try so hard to be good, but you always end up back at square one—craving sugar like crazy and feeling totally out of control.

Let me tell you something that might shock you: those aren’t just cravings. 

That’s addiction. Real, measurable, scientifically-proven addiction. 

And it’s not your fault.

But here’s the thing—once you understand what’s actually happening in your brain and your body, you can finally break free. 

So let’s dive in.

But real quick, if you’re new here and you want to learn more about how to actually transform your health without dieting, I’ve got a really good, really powerful free training available for you to watch called Healthy, Happy & Free that walks you through creating your own personalized health plan. 

You can grab it HERE.

My Personal Sugar Addiction Story

But before we get into the science, I want to share something with you that I don’t talk about very often—just how bad my sugar addiction really was.

For 28 years, I was a vegetarian. And during that time, I thought I was eating so healthy. I’d start my day with a green smoothie packed with fruit, have a bowl of yogurt for lunch with some “healthy” granola on top, and snack on things like energy bars and dried fruit.

I was so smug about my “healthy” diet. 

But what I didn’t realize was that I was consuming massive amounts of sugar all day long.

That green smoothie? Probably 60 grams of sugar, even though it was “natural” fruit sugar. The granola on my yogurt? More sugar. And the yogurt itself? Loaded with sugar.

Those energy bars I thought were so much better than candy bars? Often had more sugar than actual candy bars.

And I was constantly hungry. Constantly thinking about food. I’d finish one meal and immediately start planning the next one.

I thought this was normal. I thought some people were just “food people” and I was one of them.

But the worst part was the afternoon crashes. Every single day, around 2 or 3 PM, I’d hit this wall of exhaustion. I couldn’t think straight, I was irritable, and all I wanted was something sweet to pick me up.

So I’d grab another energy bar, or some dried fruit, or if I was really desperate, I’d run to the coffee shop for a muffin and a sugary latte.

And for about 30 minutes, I’d feel better. But then the cycle would start all over again.

I lived like this for years. Decades, actually. And I had no idea that I was trapped in a cycle of addiction.

It wasn’t until I started researching the science of weight loss and metabolism that I learned what was really happening. 

And when I finally understood it, everything clicked into place.

The constant hunger, the cravings, the energy crashes, the inability to lose weight no matter how little I ate—it was all connected. I wasn’t weak or lacking willpower. 

I was addicted to sugar, and my body was completely dependent on it for fuel.

And there’s a very good chance that yours is too.

Why Your “Sweet Tooth” Is Actually an Addiction

So let’s just get honest about something that might be hard to hear: 

What you think is just a “sweet tooth” is actually a full-blown addiction.

I know, I know. That sounds dramatic. But hear me out.

For years, I told myself I just loved sweets. That it was normal to crave them after every meal. That some people are just “sugar people” and others aren’t.

But then I learned the science, and it blew my mind.

Sugar—specifically fructose—is actually as addictive as cocaine. 

I’m not being dramatic here. Studies have shown that lab rats will choose sugar water over cocaine when given the choice. In fact, a 2007 study found that when rats were given a choice between cocaine and sugar water, 94% of them chose the sugar water.

Sugar lights up the same reward pathways in your brain as heroin. 

It triggers the release of dopamine in the nucleus accumbens—the same area of the brain that’s activated by addictive drugs.

And here’s the kicker: the food industry knows this. 

They’ve spent billions of dollars figuring out the exact “bliss point” of sugar that will keep you coming back for more.

Dr. Michael Moss, in his book “Salt Sugar Fat,” describes how food companies hire teams of scientists whose only job is to find the perfect combination of sugar, salt, and fat that will make their products irresistible.

They call it the “bliss point”—the precise amount of sugar that will trigger the strongest craving response without being so sweet that it turns you off.

Think about it—when’s the last time you binged on broccoli? 

Never, right? But how many times have you eaten “just one” cookie and ended up polishing off the whole sleeve?

That’s not a lack of willpower. That’s your brain on drugs.

And it gets worse. Just like with any drug, you develop tolerance. 

The more sugar you eat, the more you need to get that same dopamine hit.

This is why people who are addicted to sugar often find themselves eating larger and larger quantities over time. 

It’s not because you’re getting “worse” at controlling yourself—it’s because your brain literally needs more of the drug to feel satisfied.

And that’s just the beginning.

The Hidden Sugar Trap That’s Sabotaging Your Health

But here’s where it gets really sneaky. 

You might think, “Well, I don’t eat that much sugar. I don’t have a sweet tooth like some people.”

But sugar isn’t just in the obvious places anymore.

The average American consumes 152 pounds of added sugar per year. That’s almost half a pound every single day. And most of it is hidden.

Let me give you some examples that might shock you:

A single tablespoon of ketchup contains a full teaspoon of sugar. 

If you put ketchup on your burger and fries, you could easily be consuming 3-4 teaspoons of sugar without even realizing it.

A cup of flavored yogurt—you know, the kind that’s marketed as healthy—can contain up to 6 teaspoons of added sugar. That’s more than a Twinkie.

A slice of whole wheat bread contains about 2 teaspoons of sugar. 

A sandwich made with two slices of bread and some condiments could easily have 6-8 teaspoons of sugar before you even add any “sweet” foods.

A single serving of marinara sauce can contain 3-4 teaspoons of added sugar. If you’re having pasta with sauce, you’re getting a massive sugar hit that you probably don’t even taste as “sweet.”

Even things like salad dressing, protein bars, and supposedly “savory” snacks like crackers and chips are loaded with hidden sugars.

It’s in your bread, your pasta sauce, your salad dressing. It’s in foods marketed as “healthy”—yogurt, granola bars, protein shakes. Even your supposedly “savory” chips and crackers are loaded with it.

And this isn’t by accident. 

Starting in the 1970s, when the government started telling us that fat was bad and we should eat low-fat diets, the food industry had a problem. When you take fat out of food, it tastes terrible.

So they solved this problem by adding sugar. Lots and lots of sugar.

They figured out how to extract fructose from corn and add it to literally everything. Because they knew something we didn’t: the more sugar they put in their products, the more we’d buy.

High fructose corn syrup became the cheap, easy way to make low-fat foods taste good. And suddenly it was in everything—bread, crackers, condiments, sauces, even products that weren’t supposed to be sweet.

But here’s what really gets me fired up—the food and diet industries have also managed to  convince us it’s our fault. That we just need more willpower. That we’re weak if we can’t resist.

They’ve created a food supply that’s literally designed to be addictive, and then they blame us when we become addicted to it.

That’s complete garbage.

And thankfully, there is a shift that’s starting to happen, with the advent of the Make America Healthy Again Movement.

Companies are finally starting to listen, at least a little bit, and starting to make changes that will hopefully compound over time.

But we still have a long way to go.

What Sugar Actually Does to Your Brain (And Why You Can’t Stop)

So while we wait for the food companies to get their act together, let me explain what’s really happening in your brain when you eat sugar, because I feel like once you understand this, everything changes.

When you consume sugar—especially fructose—it hits your brain like a freight train. 

Within minutes, it crosses the blood-brain barrier and floods your system with dopamine, that “feel good” neurotransmitter that gives you an instant high.

Your brain loves this. It thinks, “Ooh, this is good! This helps us survive! Let’s remember this!”

So your brain starts forming what scientists call “reward pathways”—basically, neural highways that connect the consumption of sugar with feelings of pleasure and satisfaction.

The more often you travel these highways, the stronger they become. Eventually, they become so strong that just thinking about sugar, or even seeing it, can trigger intense cravings.

But here’s the really insidious part: the more sugar you eat, the more your brain becomes desensitized to dopamine. So you need more and more sugar to get that same feeling of pleasure and satisfaction.

It’s the exact same process that happens with cocaine or heroin. Your brain literally rewires itself to crave sugar.

Meanwhile, sugar is also wreaking havoc on another part of your brain—the prefrontal cortex. This is the area responsible for decision-making, impulse control, and long-term planning.

Studies have shown that chronic sugar consumption actually shrinks the prefrontal cortex, making it harder for you to make good decisions and resist impulses.

So not only are you becoming more addicted to sugar, but you’re also losing the ability to resist it. It’s a perfect storm.

Dr. Nicole Avena, a neuroscientist who studies food addiction, has shown that sugar affects the brain in four distinct ways:

First, it triggers dopamine release in the reward center, just like drugs do.

Second, it reduces dopamine receptors over time, meaning you need more sugar to feel good.

Third, it affects the brain’s opioid system, which is why sugar can literally make you feel “high.”

And fourth, it impairs the prefrontal cortex, making it harder to make good decisions about food.

And that’s why when you try to cut back, you feel awful. 

You get headaches, mood swings, intense cravings, irritability, fatigue, difficulty concentrating. That’s not you being dramatic—that’s actual withdrawal.

The symptoms of sugar withdrawal are remarkably similar to withdrawal from other addictive substances. 

In fact, a 2018 study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine found that sugar withdrawal produces symptoms that are “strikingly similar” to those experienced during withdrawal from drugs of abuse.

I remember when I first tried to cut sugar, I felt like I was losing my mind. I’d be fine all morning, eating my healthy breakfast, feeling good about myself. 

Then 3 PM would hit and I’d be desperately searching the office for anything sweet. I’d check every desk drawer, every conference room, even the vending machine, looking for my fix.

I thought I was weak. I thought I just needed more willpower.

Turns out, my brain was just doing what addicted brains do—demanding its fix.

But here’s what no one tells you: this rewiring works both ways. 

You can actually retrain your brain to stop craving sugar. It takes time, but it absolutely works.

The Insulin Connection No One’s Talking About

But there’s another piece that’s crucial, especially for women over 40: 

Insulin resistance.

See, every time you eat sugar, your body releases insulin to deal with it. 

Insulin’s job is to take that sugar out of your bloodstream and either use it for immediate energy or store it as fat.

When you eat sugar occasionally, this system works fine. But when you’re eating sugar all day long—remember, it’s hidden in everything—your body is constantly pumping out insulin.

Over time, your cells get tired of listening to insulin. 

They become resistant to its signals. And when that happens, your body can’t effectively process sugar anymore.

So what does your pancreas do? It makes more insulin. And more. And more.

Eventually, you end up with chronically high insulin levels, and this is where everything goes haywire.

When your insulin is high, your body literally cannot burn fat for fuel. Insulin is a storage hormone—when it’s present, your body goes into storage mode, not burning mode.

So now you’re not just psychologically addicted to sugar—you’re metabolically dependent on it too. Your body can only burn sugar for fuel. It can’t access your stored fat for energy.

This is why cutting calories doesn’t work when you’re insulin resistant. Your body literally cannot access your stored fat for energy. It’s like having a full gas tank but the gas cap is locked.

And guess what happens when your blood sugar drops because you haven’t eaten sugar in a few hours? Your body panics and sends you intense cravings for more sugar. It’s the only fuel source it can access.

It’s a vicious cycle, and it’s especially brutal for women over 40 because our hormones are already shifting.

Estrogen helps regulate insulin sensitivity. 

As estrogen drops during perimenopause and menopause, insulin resistance gets worse.

Progesterone also plays a role in blood sugar regulation. 

When progesterone drops, blood sugar becomes more unstable, leading to more cravings.

Cortisol, our stress hormone, tends to increase as we age. 

And cortisol directly contributes to insulin resistance and sugar cravings.

So not only are you dealing with decades of sugar addiction, but your changing hormones are making it even harder to break free.

That’s why you can’t just “eat in moderation” your way out of this. Your body is literally working against you.

And that’s also why traditional dieting approaches—cutting calories, eating “balanced” meals with whole grains and fruit—don’t work for women like us. T

hey keep your insulin high and your body in sugar-burning mode.

The Lies We’ve Been Told About Sugar

Before we get into the solution, I want to address some of the biggest lies we’ve been told about sugar, because these myths are what keep people trapped.

Lie #1 is that “Natural” sugars are better for you.

This is probably the hardest lie to come to grips with, and it’s one I believed for years. I thought that because I was eating dates and agave and honey instead of white sugar, I was making healthy choices.

And the reality is that if your metabolism is functioning properly, natural sugar, eaten in moderation, is totally fine.

But since most of us are walking around with insulin resistance and broken metabolisms, even that natural sugar is problematic.

Because your body doesn’t care if the sugar came from a date or a Snickers bar. Fructose is fructose. 

Even fruit, while it does contain vitamins and fiber, is still sugar. And when you’re trying to break free from sugar addiction, fruit can be just as problematic as candy.

Lie #2 is “Everything in moderation.”

This is the most dangerous lie of all, because it sounds so reasonable and balanced. And again, it’s a different story if your metabolism is healthy.

But you can’t be moderately addicted to something. 

You can’t smoke cigarettes in moderation if you’re trying to quit smoking. You can’t use heroin in moderation if you’re trying to overcome heroin addiction.

The “moderation” approach keeps you trapped in the addiction cycle. 

It’s like telling an alcoholic they can have just one drink a day.

Lie #3 is that “You need carbs for energy.”

This is what I was taught in school, and it’s still what most nutritionists and doctors believe. 

But it’s completely wrong.

Your body can make all the glucose it needs through a process called gluconeogenesis. 

You don’t need to eat carbs to have energy. In fact, when your body is thin-adapted, you’ll have more stable, sustained energy than you ever did burning sugar.

And finally, lie #4 is that “It’s just about calories.”

This is the lie that kept me trapped for years. I thought if I could just burn off the calories from the sugar I ate, it wouldn’t matter.

But sugar isn’t just calories—it’s a hormone disruptor, a liver toxin, and an addictive substance. The metabolic damage it causes has nothing to do with calories.

These lies are what keep the food industry profitable and keep you sick and addicted. 

Don’t fall for them anymore, okay?

The Three-Step Process to Break Free From Sugar Addiction

And now that you understand what you’re really dealing with, let’s talk about how to fix it.

I’m going to give you the exact three-step process that worked for me and has worked for thousands of women in my TAS program.

Step 1 is Commit to a Clean Break 

Basically, you need to do a Sugar Detox.

I know this isn’t what you want to hear, but there’s no such thing as “cutting back” on an addiction.

You wouldn’t tell an alcoholic to just drink less wine, right? 

Same principle applies here.

The only way to break free from sugar addiction is to eliminate it completely, at least for a period of time.

Now, I’m not talking forever. But your brain needs time to rewire itself, and that can’t happen if you’re still feeding it small doses of the drug.

In our TAS program, we always have people start with a complete sugar detox, where you basically cut all added sugars, all grains, all processed food, and even fruit temporarily.

And we call it a sugar detox for a reason.

I know it sounds extreme. But here’s why it’s necessary:

First, you need to break the psychological addiction. As long as you’re still tasting sweet things, your brain will continue to crave them.

Second, you need to reverse your insulin resistance. The only way to do this is to keep your insulin levels low and stable for an extended period.

Third, you need to retrain your taste buds. When you eliminate sugar completely, foods that didn’t taste sweet before will start to taste sweet. Vegetables will taste more flavorful. You’ll rediscover what real food actually tastes like.

And yes, it’s hard. I won’t lie to you. The first week or two can be rough. You might get headaches, feel cranky, have trouble sleeping, experience brain fog, or feel tired.

But here’s what happens after that: your cravings start to disappear. Your energy levels out. Your mood stabilizes. And you start to feel like yourself again.

I remember the exact moment I realized the sugar had lost its power over me. I was at my daughter’s birthday party, surrounded by cake and ice cream and all her favorite treats. And I just…didn’t want any of it. I wasn’t using willpower to resist—I genuinely had no desire for it.

It was the most liberating feeling I’d ever experienced.

But you can’t get there if you’re still eating “just a little bit” of sugar. The addiction pathways in your brain will stay active, and you’ll continue to struggle with cravings.

Step 2: Heal Your Insulin Resistance (The Metabolic Reset)

But just cutting out sugar isn’t enough. You also need to heal the metabolic damage that’s been done.

This is where most people get it wrong. They focus on the addiction part but ignore the insulin resistance part.

To truly break free, you need to restore your body’s ability to burn fat for fuel instead of constantly needing sugar.

This means eating in a way that keeps your insulin low and stable. In our TAS program, we focus on:

Protein at every meal. Protein doesn’t spike insulin the way carbs do, and it keeps you feeling full and satisfied. I aim for at least 30 grams of protein at each meal.

Healthy fats. Fat doesn’t trigger insulin at all, and it provides steady, sustained energy. Think avocados, olive oil, nuts, seeds, fatty fish, and grass-fed meat.

Non-starchy vegetables. These provide fiber and nutrients without spiking blood sugar. Leafy greens, broccoli, cauliflower, zucchini, bell peppers.

No grains or processed foods. These all convert to sugar in your body and keep your insulin high.

Intermittent fasting. Giving your digestive system regular breaks helps improve insulin sensitivity.

It sounds restrictive, but here’s what’s amazing: when your insulin is stable, you’re not hungry all the time. You don’t have cravings. You can go hours without thinking about food.

This was the biggest revelation for me. I used to be hungry every 2-3 hours. I’d wake up hungry, eat breakfast, and be hungry again by 10 AM.

Now I can easily go 16-18 hours without eating and feel completely fine. I have steady energy all day. I don’t get hangry. I don’t crash in the afternoon.

I eat more food now than I ever did when I was dieting, but I weigh 49 pounds less than I used to. Because my body is finally working the way it’s supposed to.

Step 3: Retrain Your Brain (The Mindset Component)

The third step is retraining your brain to find pleasure and reward in things other than food.

This was huge for me. I had to learn new ways to cope with stress, celebrate victories, and comfort myself when things got tough.

For years, food had been my go-to for everything. Happy? Let’s celebrate with cake. Sad? Ice cream will make me feel better. Stressed? Chips and wine will help me relax. Bored? Let’s see what’s in the pantry.

I had to consciously create new habits and new neural pathways.

Instead of reaching for food when I was stressed, I started going for walks outside. The combination of movement, fresh air, and vitamin D was way more effective at reducing my stress than any food ever was.

Instead of celebrating with food, I started treating myself to new workout clothes, a massage, or something else that made me feel good about myself.

When I was bored, instead of mindlessly snacking, I started doing things that actually engaged my brain—reading, working on a puzzle, calling a friend.

It felt weird at first. But slowly, my brain started forming new neural pathways. New habits. New ways of being.

And now? I honestly don’t miss the old way. I don’t feel deprived. I feel free.

The key is to be intentional about this. 

You can’t just eliminate the old habits—you have to replace them with new ones.

What to Expect During Your Sugar Detox

So if you decide to try this Sugar Detox approach, here’s what you can expect during the first few weeks:

Days 1-3 are basically The Crash. And this is usually the hardest part. You might feel tired, cranky, or headachy. You might have trouble concentrating. Just know that this is normal—your body is adjusting to running on fat instead of sugar.

Days 4-7 are the Adjustment. You’ll start to feel a bit better, but you might still have some cravings. This is when a lot of people give up, but if you push through, it gets much easier.

In week 2 is when your first Breakthrough usually happens. Most people start to notice significant improvements by the second week.  Your energy levels stabilize, cravings diminish, and your sleep improves.

By week 3-4 you’ve hit your New Normal By this point, most people feel dramatically better. Your cravings are mostly gone, your energy is steady, and your mood is more stable.

Beyond 4 weeks is when you really start to feel the Freedom After about a month, you’ve essentially rewired your brain and healed your metabolism. You’ll have steady energy, stable mood, and very few cravings.

But remember, everyone is different. Some people feel better within a few days, while others take a few weeks. Don’t get discouraged if your timeline doesn’t match someone else’s.

And know too, that at Thinlicious, we have an amazing mini-program to help you with this. It’s called the 10 Day Sugar Detox, and it’s awesome. If you want to try it, I’ll include the link in the show notes, so be sure to check that out.

The Real Truth About “Moderation”

Before we wrap up, I want to address something that always comes up when I talk about this: moderation.

People love to say, “Everything in moderation!” 

Like that’s some wise, balanced approach to eating.

But the thing about moderation is that it really doesn’t work for addiction.

You can’t be moderately addicted to heroin. 

You can’t smoke cigarettes in moderation if you’re trying to quit.

And you can’t eat sugar in moderation if you’re trying to break free from sugar addiction.

I know this is hard to hear, especially in our culture that’s obsessed with “balance.” But sometimes the most balanced thing you can do is eliminate something that’s harming you.

The “moderation” approach is actually what keeps most people trapped. 

They’ll eat really well for a few days, then have “just a little” sugar as a treat. But that “little bit” reactivates all the addiction pathways in their brain, and they’re right back where they started.

And I’m not saying you can never have a piece of cake again. Once you actually heal your metabolism and reverse insulin resistance, you’ll find that you can actually add in a moderate amount of sugar and carbohydrates.

But that takes a while–for most women, it will be at least a year to fully heal your metabolism and become we what we call metabolically flexible.

And the only way to get there is to first break the addiction. You need to get to a place where you’re choosing to have cake, not feeling compelled to have it.

There’s a huge difference between those two things.

Once you’ve broken free from the addiction—once you’ve rewired your brain and healed your metabolism—then you can make conscious choices about when and if you want to include sugar in your life.

But if you’re currently addicted, moderation will just keep you trapped.

What Freedom Actually Looks Like

So what does life look like on the other side of sugar addiction?

For me, it’s incredible. 

I wake up with energy that lasts all day. I don’t think about food constantly. I can go to parties and social events without feeling stressed about what I’ll eat.

I can walk past a bakery without feeling compelled to go in. I can have treats in my house without obsessing over them. I can make decisions about food based on what will make me feel good, not based on cravings I can’t control.

Most importantly, I feel like myself again. The real me. Not the version that was controlled by cravings and mood swings and energy crashes.

I have mental clarity I haven’t had in years. My mood is stable. I sleep better. I have more patience with my kids. I’m more productive at work.

And this isn’t just my experience. In our TAS program, I see women break free from this every single day.

Take Jodi, one of our clients. She came to us after 20 years of being what she called a “sugar addict.” She’d tried everything—portion control, “mindful eating,” Weight Watchers, you name it. Nothing worked.

She told me she would literally plan her entire day around her next sugar fix. She’d eat a healthy breakfast, then spend the whole morning thinking about what sweet treat she could have for lunch. She’d try to distract herself with work, but her brain was constantly occupied with food thoughts.

She was embarrassed to admit that she would sometimes eat dessert for breakfast, or hide candy in her car so her kids wouldn’t see her eating it.

Within 30 days of starting our program, her cravings were gone. Not reduced—gone. She told me it felt like someone had flipped a switch in her brain.

Now, six months later, she’s down 45 pounds and says she can’t even remember the last time she craved something sweet. She has steady energy all day, sleeps better, and feels like herself again.

This is what’s possible when you understand what you’re really dealing with and take the right steps to address it.

Your Next Step

If you’re ready to break free from sugar addiction, here’s what I want you to do.

First, stop telling yourself it’s just a “sweet tooth” or that you need more willpower. You’re dealing with a real addiction, and it deserves to be treated like one.

Second, make a decision. Are you ready to commit to doing what it takes to break free? Because I won’t lie to you—it’s not easy. But it’s absolutely worth it.

And third, get support. You don’t have to do this alone. In fact, trying to do it alone is one of the main reasons people fail.

That’s why I created the TAS program—to give women the tools, the support, and the community they need to finally break free from food addiction and transform their health for good.

Our program isn’t just about cutting out sugar. We give you meal plans, recipes, shopping lists, and step-by-step guidance to make the transition as easy as possible.

We also provide coaching and community support, because having people who understand what you’re going through makes all the difference.

If you want to learn more about how TAS works and whether it might be right for you, go watch that free training I mentioned HERE. I’ll walk you through the science behind what we do and show you exactly how to create your own personalized plan for getting healthy.

Because here’s what I know for sure: you don’t have to live your life controlled by cravings. You don’t have to feel powerless around food. You can break free.

I did it. Thousands of other women have done it. And you can too.

Final Thoughts

Breaking free from sugar addiction isn’t just about losing weight or getting healthy—though those things absolutely happen.

It’s about reclaiming your power. It’s about feeling like yourself again. It’s about having the energy and confidence to pursue your biggest goals and dreams.

It’s about freedom.

And you deserve that freedom, my friend. You really do.

So don’t let anyone tell you it’s just about willpower or that you need to eat sugar in moderation. You know the truth now. Sugar is a drug, and you’ve been addicted to it.

But addiction isn’t a life sentence. It’s just your starting point.

Your transformation starts now.

Alright friends, that’s a wrap for today. 

If this blog post opened your eyes or helped you understand something new about your own relationship with food, I’d love it if you’d share it with someone who needs to hear it.

And don’t forget to grab that free training HERE—it really will change the way you think about health and weight loss.

The post The Science of Sugar Addiction: How to Break Free From Cravings That Control Your Life appeared first on Thinlicious.

Yeah. Today’s episode is gonna blow your mind in the best way.

Welcome to the Feel Better Live Free podcast, brought to you by FIUs. I’m your host, Ruth Soukup, and here we’ll talk about everything from the science of weight loss to practical tips for making your health a priority in the midst of a busy life. It’s a little bit nerdy, a little bit funny, and a little bit revolutionary.

So buckle up friend, because it’s about to get real.

Today I’m chatting with Dr. Gowri Rocco, a double board certified physician with over 25 years of experience and the founder of Optimum Wellness and Longevity in Corona, California.

Dr. Rocco, also the international number one bestselling author of Growing Younger. Restore your hormones, energy and sex drive. And she is on a mission to help women age better naturally by taking a more holistic, hormone balanced, joy-filled approach to wellness. And you guys, I absolutely love her perspective.

She calls it her recipe for youth laughter, orgasms, and endorphins. It’s science-backed, it’s impactful, and it just might completely change the way you think about getting older. I cannot wait for you to hear this conversation, so let’s get right into it. Dr. Rocco, thank you so much for being here today.

I’m so excited to talk to you. Aw, thank you for having me. It’s my pleasure. Thank you. You’re welcome. Um, so let’s just start with the question I like to ask everybody, which is tell us a little bit about yourself, who you are, what you do, and how you got to be doing what you are now. Big question. 

Dr. Gowri Rocco: Thank you, Ruth.

Okay. So, you know, um, I am in women’s, I’m a women’s health specialist, which means that after med school I decided to do a fellowship in women’s health. And what, to me, what women’s health means is like, um, you know, why is it that what, uh, with every phase in our life, like us women, whether it’s our.

Periods when we’re going through puberty or after we have babies or menopause, like, there’s so many phases that change. It’s like we don’t just have like, like men just seem to have like a, like, you know, one plateau and they don’t really hormonally go all over the place. We’re likes waves. And so to me, I wanted to go into one’s health to understand why my body’s like that.

Why, um, my, how can I help people, you know, navigate through that. In life, like different seasons, right? Yes. So women’s health is like. It’s so important. So I’m a women’s health specialist, which really revolves around hormones. That’s what women’s health is, ’cause our hormones are so dynamic. And then I’m in functional medicine, which means I believe in finding the root cause of disease instead of just prescribing drugs to kind of fix it temporarily and then still have our bad habits, right?

So we wanna understand why is this happening? How can we, um, fix it naturally as possible? I love that. And so that’s what functional medicine and, and I love it because, um, it’s very rewarding when you empower your patients to teach them tools to help themselves. That’s so true. That’s so true. 

Ruth Soukup: Um, so.

I don’t know why. I’m just blanking on this question. I know it’s a lot of stuff because I, there’s so many things that I wanna talk to you about. There’s so many things that, but then you got me thinking about functional health and I all came together all at once. But tell, like, I, I don’t think we talk about this enough, and I, and I always like when my clients are like, what kind of doctor should I go see?

Or who should I go see? I’m always like, functional health. Functional health, functional health, because I don’t think people understand. The, really the difference between functional medicine and traditional medicine. So before we dive into all the stuff that I wanna talk to you about, can you just say a little bit more about that?

Like, what is real, why is it so much more powerful to to be seeing a functional doctor who’s kind of looking at things holistically? 

Dr. Gowri Rocco: So, you know, um, this is a story. It’ll help kind of bring things together. My, I had a, growing up, you know, we were born in India. We came to the States and my sister was a baby of the family, and she, when she was going away to college, she started having like.

Schizophrenia and bipolar kind of symptoms. And you know, my father’s a really brilliant physician and we, in Indian culture, a lot of us are a physicians, so we always thought medicine was gonna be something that would help her with her condition and it, it really stabilized her when she took it, but she couldn’t shake it on her own.

And, you know, nutrition. Behavior, sleep, toxins. Um, all these things affect disease formation and chronic inflammation. And sometimes when we’re on regular medicine, which is like, you know, what we traditionally go to medical school for, we get taught like, here’s, here’s what it’s supposed to be. Here’s pathology.

Where’s something went wrong and here’s the drug to fix it. It’s not that simple. In real life there’s side effects. People gain weight, people hate how they feel on it or, you know. So that was my sister. She hated taking her medicine even though it worked for her. And unfortunately, like, you know, 10 years after dealing with, you know, this chronic illness, um, she took her own life, which was devastating for us.

And she was only 27, you know, and, and that shook up my life. It shook up my, my family’s life, my brother, my parents, and it taught me that in medicine. Like, that’s not how I should be looking at things. It’s just did someone take their drug? And, and if they didn’t take it, things didn’t go well. And I wanted to look at like, why, why?

You know, why did this happen? Like, what could we have done differently? Like, what could she, what more could we have done for her? And she left a beautiful note and everything, but that isn’t, isn’t the point. The point is that maybe there was something that we were missing and, and so like vitamin D. So this is what got me driving into functional medicine.

You know, when we don’t have enough vitamin D, we tend to be more prone to depression, bipolar psychosis, um, anxiety disorders. And even when you take the ME medication, it doesn’t work optimally and you have to take a lot higher doses. So fixing vitamin D makes a big difference. And maybe she had low vitamin D, you know, maybe she had toxins that she was exposed to that we never detoxed or looked at.

So  Functional medicine doctors. And your blood work matters. How you urinate matters and, um, how you talk to yourself matters.

So yes, your, your history and your trauma matters, right? So in regular medicine, we don’t always look at those things. We do blood work and we just give a prescription to lower the cholesterol. Yes. 

Ruth Soukup: Oh, that is, so, that is such a powerful story and it like really, really resonates with me. Um, because I, I went through, I talk, I’ve talked about this a little bit, but I went through a really bad depression in my, um, early twenties and attempted suicide multiple times and, and I have talked about that now.

Um, of just when I look back, you know, I spent two and a half years in and out of psychiatric hospitals and I was on every medication to the point where they gave me electro shock therapy, right? Like all the things, and that was never discussed was what’s your nutrition like, right? I wasn’t, I wasn’t eating meat, I probably wasn’t getting an I’m so in me.

I was so depleted of, of so many things and no one ever thought to ask, what does that look like? What does that part of look like? And I, and I think about that now so much. And it, it really like it. I mean, how, what a heartbreaking story, but how powerful of a legacy that has left for your patients to know that there’s something so much deeper there that is behind why you care about.

About their whole, their whole life and their all, like every part of their health. And not just what medicine can I push on you and what, what drug is gonna fix this problem, right? It’s not that simple. You’re not simple, simple machines. But man, thank you for sharing that. That is, oh 

Dr. Gowri Rocco: no, Ruth, I love your story.

See, that’s an inspiration like that. You went through that and you battle through it and you are stronger for it, and you can help people conquer their, you know, pain. You know, ’cause it’s very painful and you feel so lost and it’s scary, you know? And, um, yeah. I’m so sorry for what you went through and, um, but I’m so proud of you for enduring through it and conquering through 

Ruth Soukup: it.

Thank you. Yeah, no, it’s, I mean, and it’s, it’s been a long time, right? And I’ve been, been well for a long time and that’s, that is actually why I love sharing my story because I think when I was in that place. I, you never, especially like you, I am sure you’re familiar with it, right? Like the psychiatric hospital environment.

You do not see people getting well like it is. Yeah, it is negative. A revolving door. They leave and come back and get readmitted and readmitted and no one, and I used to say that to my doctors, like, how can you tell me I’m gonna get better? This is a, I’m a lost cause because everybody else here is a lost cause and they just keep coming back.

No one gets better. You can’t show me a single person. And now I get to be that person who’s like, I am here. I recovered. I am better. I am fully healed. And so, yeah, that’s just, I mean, I know this isn’t even what we’re talking about happy things today. Yes. It’s, this is like such a big. Important piece of it like that.

It like that right there. If you don’t understand the difference between seeing a doctor who’s going to just prescribe you a medication and seeing a doctor who’s gonna look at you as a whole person and go, what is actually the root cause of all of this? That’s, that’s 

Dr. Gowri Rocco: huge. That’s. Yes. And you know what, being, like you said, like not having enough protein or iron, it’s so hard to have the energy to recover for your body and your cells and um, yeah, it’s, it’s, it’s a process, you know, and it’s so, it’s such a relief when you find someone that cares to, you know, kind of unpeel that onion and try to look at a deeper you.

Oh yeah. And that’s what functional medicine is, you know, so huge. I love 

Ruth Soukup: that. Well, thank you. Thank you for what you do. It’s just, it’s amazing. So let’s talk a little bit more about what you really talk about, um, in your practice and, and with your clients about laughter, orgasms and end endorsements as your recipe for youth.

Um, so tell me a little bit about this approach and what inspired this and how this all works together. Because I, I feel like. I like this approach, and I’m pretty sure my husband will like this approach. Yes, yes. You know 

Dr. Gowri Rocco: what? So we are like, we, you have to remember, we have senses, right? Like touch is so powerful.

Like healing, right? Is it’s healing. So when you hold your baby, when you hold your dog, when you hold your husband, we release, um, oxytocin, right? Hugging and kissing and being affectionate, holding hands. You release oxytocin, which is a positive endorphin, which makes you feel loved, it makes you feel like happy and like, you know, when you.

Look at the sun and you have a dopamine hit. Or when you go for a walk and you have like energy, all these hormones, especially with orgasms, you release prolactin, you release oxytocin. These are all positive endorphins that make you feel good and loved and, and it’s like a hug, you know? And you sleep better.

That’s a natural sleeping aid if having orgasms before you go to bed. Yes. You know, really. And yes, 30 to 40% people sleep. So much better. Like just having that in itself with like, and if you take a magnesium that helps you sleep better. You know, taking a a chamomile tea helps you sleep better. So like, it’s amazing, like there’s so many natural things that are free and that are like safe to do that, you know, these are God-given things that God gave us, like hormones and like feelings.

And laughter is another way. Like when you laugh, you release serotonin, epinephrine, you know, all these. Good chemicals that make your brain feel good and that prevent disease that heal you. You know, laughter yoga in India is a real thing. They literally go to yoga class and just make each other laugh, and that makes them, yeah, that increases your immune system.

You know that, like Ruth, when you, um, wake up in the morning, you should have a better immune system. When you laugh like a really good belly laugh or when you just like smile, it’s contagious. And it increases your immune system. So all these like really nice things that you could do like every day, like it’s a powerful way of improving your immune system, sleeping better, feeling more loved, you know, and it, it’s, it doesn’t even require words.

Ruth Soukup: I love that. So how do people get more of that in their life? Right? Like I feel like we get, we’re in such a society where it’s go, go, go all the time. Yeah. It’s like high stress. There’s, you know, all, all the things, especially women in their forties and fifties, right? Yes. We are 

Dr. Gowri Rocco: like, 

Ruth Soukup: teenagers.

Do not give you 

Dr. Gowri Rocco: endorphins. Yeah, that’s true. You know, I have three kids and Yes, yes, yes. But you know what, like. You know what’s really, what’s really significant is you really have to prioritize your, we as women have to have like our maintenance time, like our love time for ourselves, you know, so whether you wanna read your book, whether you wanna journal, like you can do multiple things, but I would put aside an hour a day, whether it’s early in the morning while they’re still sleeping, you know, or in the evening, or whether they’re in their school.

But you really have to prioritize it. Like we can do anything if we just prioritize it. So like going for a walk, oh my gosh. In Nature Outdoors is a great, like me time, getting a massage, like writing, journaling, um, reading a book, just even like, whatever makes you feel good. Try to do something every day for yourself every single day.

Like, we matter. ’cause we raise families, we have, you know, careers. We have to stay healthy if we want to exude that to other people. 

Ruth Soukup: Yeah. Well, and it’s that a whole idea of putting on your own oxygen mask first, right? Yes, exactly. We don’t think we have time for that, but do you have time to get sick for and be down for the count for three days?

Right. This is actually saving you time when you’re taking care of yourself and taking care of your own wellbeing, because it’s keeping, it’s keeping your whole life Yes. Going and flowing and allowing you to pour, like, pour into everything else with more energy. I love, like, I love that. Rationalization.

’cause I think we need that rationalization, right? For it to say like, no, this isn’t selfish that I’m sitting here and reading a book for an hour. This is me. This is what is keeping me healthy and keeping me. Yes. 

Dr. Gowri Rocco: And it lowers your blood pressure. Yeah. It lowers your cortisol levels, improves your immune system.

And you know what, like another thing is like. It’s really important that we realize how we think up here. This is our terrain, this is our brain, okay? And whatever we think here reflects on our body, and it’s important that we start with positive thinking. Like even when things go really hard and things look so scary and unknown uncertainties, you have to think positive because that’s when it really matters.

That’s when faith matters. That’s when you know being optimistic matters, not when things are great. No, like it’s already great. Like you have to have that faith and optimism like when it’s challenging and it’s so important that you fill your brain with positive thoughts. ’cause it really happens. You attract it, you attract positive people, you attract what you think and you become it.

You know, and, and that’s free and that’s powerful. So, you know, I deal with a lot of people that have autoimmune diseases that might have cancers, that might have like negative things. And they’re like, gosh, doctor, like where am I supposed to start? Like, feeling good. Like, you know, what do you, what do you want me to do?

I feel so demoralized because a lot of people that I do see tend to be going through chronic disease or depression or something. And I tell them, I said, you know what, like. It’s so important that you imagine tomorrow’s a better day. If you think it’s gonna be crappy again and shitty and just like yucky again, it will be.

And so you are. You have to want it. You have to imagine it. You have to like think it, and you have to like, you really have to think it because if you don’t believe that, it can be better. It’s never gonna be. Yeah. So sometimes I have to sit them and hold their hands and, and have them do an imaginary board on their brain.

Like, you know, just imagine a just tomorrow, a better day. Like what one thing could be better that would make you smile, you know, maybe. And so you gotta start with baby steps. And baby steps matter. Like one thing better today than yesterday makes a difference. Yes. So that gratitude of life of like things could be so much worse.

Like if you know someone worse than you, then you should be grateful, you know that that’s not happening to you. Yeah. And so these, you just have to rational with people. ’cause sometimes people are so deep in pain. 

Ruth Soukup: They’re hurting so bad. That’s true. And I can 100% relate to that too. And, but there’s also a, like, if I even think back to my own journey with depression, uh, it, one of the things that like finally helped me get past it was this idea of fake it till you make it.

Like just yeah. 

Dr. Gowri Rocco: Do the things. And I 

Ruth Soukup: finally, that for me, I finally got to a point where I said. Called a new therapist and said, I have just spent the last two and a half years talking about every bad thing that’s ever happened to me. Right? We’ve delved into all the trauma, all the ways my parents did me wrong, all the, all the things.

And all it does is like at some point bring you down, right? Not that you don’t have to work through some stuff, I get it. Like that is, that is true, but there is a point where you can go so into wallow of. Yes, that you’re not looking forward towards the future. And so I said, I don’t wanna talk about any of that anymore.

Like I literally just need to know how to go to the grocery store without having a panic attack. Like, help me, help me live. ’cause I don’t know how to live anymore. And that’s what we would do. We would just talk about like. Practical focus, like, what can you do today that’s positive? And I think I really truly, when I look back on it, realize, I mean, one, I, I changed the way I was eating and was starting to eat a lot more healthy whole foods and, and yes, cut out sugar, cut out, yeah.

Cut out sugar. Mm-hmm. And, but at the same time, I was really focused on just like practical day to day. Making friends got a dog. Right. Like things little, like little things that were positive in my life. Yes. Instead of wallowing in all the negative. And I, and I do think that like really made such a difference and it, it’s everything that you’re talking about, right?

It’s, it’s not always one big thing. And I, and then I think back even just to a few years ago. When my oldest daughter was, you know, a teenager, she was 14, 15, she was going through a really just kind of nasty nor it was normal teenage stuff, but it was really hard to deal with and my husband and I were like at the end of our rope with her of just like.

What are we gonna do? How are we gonna deal with this? Like every day in, day out, like when you’re with a, a teenager that has a bad attitude, like it’s hard to not bring down the whole like, vibe of the, of the household. And we started going back to church right at that time, and I just remember. Being in church with him every week, just clinging to my husband and just like letting the spirit pour into us, right?

Like that was what we needed at that time to just like be, yes, you can make it through, we can make it through another week. We got this and we have each other. And we got, and that was like such a positive thing in the midst of this like time that felt very hard and very challenging and very, so there’s always, there’s always like a different.

A different way to add that in, and I, I love everything that you’re saying about. Just because we don’t think about this, especially in a world where it feels stressful and it feels hard and it feels like everybody’s at each other’s throats all the time. And just to bring in more light, more laughter, more just 

Dr. Gowri Rocco: yes, the simple things go back to the simple things that God gave us that we can all do.

And Ruth, I love that you’ve, you know, went back to church and prayed because that these things, um, people. Don’t people forget? We are empowered, we are dynamic beings that change. Our body wants to be better, even if we’re in a really bad place. One little step toward movement toward the future, toward being better, like repeated every day makes a big difference.

Yeah. And so you, you know, staying around positive people and if there’s not positive people, be by yourself. Be with the Lord, you know, love, be with nature, be with the birds, be with the butterflies. I mean, nothing great happens without sorrow and pain, you know? And that’s nature’s life. That’s nature’s story.

It’s not mine. It’s not ours. It’s it’s life. You know, like even so we have to like. We have to honor what the pain that people go through and the challenges, but you also have to move forward doing it. Like it’s gotta be baby steps every day that accumulate. And it’s, it’s, um, it’s a journey. Life is a journey.

Like it’s not supposed to be easy. It’s not supposed to be like fun all the time. And just the fact that you have a partner in your life, like you have a husband, you have someone that like loves you, that goes through it with us. Like it’s so helpful. Whether it’s your parent or your child. You know, someone you love, like your husband or wife, like it makes a big difference that we’re not alone because loneliness is another big, you know, cause of disease.

Yes. And we need to feel community and in, and God and people and pets and like it. We don’t wanna be alone all the time. You can be alone when you wanna think about things that’s healthy. You shouldn’t feel like lonely all the time. 

Ruth Soukup: You know what I mean? Right. 

Dr. Gowri Rocco: Mm-hmm. Yeah. 

Ruth Soukup: Right. And that’s, I mean, I talk about that too and, and I think, like in my program, so many women in our programs stay with it, not because necessarily they need the guidance for what to eat and what not to eat, right?

Like you start to can pick that up, but. The community of having people that are in the same boat that kind of get it and that are cheering you on and that are bringing that positive side of things. Like it’s so huge. Yes. You right. I think sometimes we get so isolated or we don’t have those kind of mindset focused people around us that you can, that.

Kind of you. You don’t even realize how much you’re being pulled down by the weight of the people around you and the attitudes of the people around you. But then you get around that and you’re like, okay, this is my people. This is my crowd. And it’s so cool that we live, you know, the internet can be a really awful negative place, but it can also be a place to find such positivity.

Yes. Community. Yes. Community in community. Mm-hmm. Yes. Yeah. So let’s talk a little bit more about hormones and how. How have the, your hormones played such a role in your energy and your mood and your wellbeing? And, and you know, that’s like most of people listening right now is of the women listening, right?

Yes. In that stage where our hormones are a mess. So what do you, I mean, what do you, 

Dr. Gowri Rocco: what do you recommend? You know, I’ll give like, some major tidbits. ’cause I am a big believer in, um, that’s what I specialize by identical hormones, natural uh, replacement of hormones from plants, you know, and. As we age, we naturally do lose hormones with dynamic shifts in our body.

Like with, um, menopause, you know, we tend to make less estrogen. So it’s, it’s estrogen is our driving force for women. It’s what defines us as women. So, and it’s an, it’s the strongest antioxidant in our blood system. So how do you. Supplement some of that naturally by activity is like one is good sleep, exercise, like I tell everyone, minimum of 10,000 steps just for like activity.

But you should do 12 to 14 if you wanna make more hormones. And just also, you know, menopause is more of a. Western philosophy than it is throughout the rest of the world, to be honest, because you have to keep yourself busy and keep your brain active. Journal read, write. I’m not talking about just getting on the internet, I’m talking about like actively learning something every day, whether it’s gardening or whether you wanna learn how to play golf or crocheting, right?

Like whatever it is, find joy in it and that increases your endorphins and hormone balancing. So hormones have. Not just to do with estrogen. Um, it has to do with thyroid. It has to do with cortisol. So that’s why I tell people, if you wanna optimize your hormones in every type of hormone, eat less sugar, eat less processed foods, okay?

Move more, sleep at least six to seven hours minimum. You know? And if you can’t do that, some people aren’t, don’t value sleep, then, then you know what? Move moving. It like really burns off sugar and bad chemicals in our toxins. You sweat it out and you replace it with good energy. And, um, our body has, um, autophogy, which means like it knows how to kill off bad cells and replace it with good cells.

And, um, that happens with movement. Good eating, like nutrient dense foods, vegetables, um, eating lots of good fats. Good fats are critical for brain health and making hormones. So I am a big pusher of like avocados and seeds and nuts and grassed butter and, and organic grass pasture raised eggs. So. Eating.

Um, and then like I said before, like your mental thinking is critical. Like you have to like really try your best every day to try to be better than you were yesterday. You know, just little baby steps. 

Ruth Soukup: I love that, and I don’t think that that really gets talked about either is, you know, the importance of mental clarity and mental health.

Not from a, like, I’m depressed, I’m not depressed standpoint, but from a, just engage your brain. You gotta engage your brain and, and be passionate about something. It doesn’t really matter what it is. But yes, don’t stop learning. Stop growing. You don’t stop becoming the next version of you, whoever that’s going to be.

I, I really love that. So tell me a little bit more about bioidentical bioidentical hormones and how you know when it’s time. Because that’s what I’m curious about right now. 

Dr. Gowri Rocco: I, I test, I do test urine, blood serum just to make sure, um, that my patients do need it. Um, that’s where like the science part is really big and I, and I customize it.

I give it appropriately, like what’s not needed, you know? But. What’s amazing is that bioidentical hormones do come from plants, or they are plant-based. They’re not big pharma. It’s not, uh, synthetic. It’s plant-based. So that means that when you eat it like a vegetable, it binds to your receptor and it activates hormones like the same estrogen that God gave you, and it usually comes from yams, wild yam.

Eating lentils, eating, um, organic soy, like at Mame is a great way of getting some of these hormone replacements, uh, naturally. But it, it really comes with exercise and weight management. Like you gotta cut down your stress, your cortisol levels, which means moving more. Um. You know, very active societies don’t have menopausal symptoms.

Like if you look at certain, some of these Italian cultures, Greek, Peru, um, yeah. Blue Zones zone. Yeah, the Blue Zones for sure. And even if you look at like, um, historically speaking. Menopause was not a term that was common because women stayed active. They did their own household. They, they gardened, they walked a lot more than they do in our society.

So all these ha healthy habits burn fat to make your own hormones. So that’s what we need to think about. Like instead of just supplementing it just. Replacing it, which is important. ’cause in our culture sometimes, you know, it’s hard to do everything. Mm-hmm. But I do prescribe like customized low levels and I try to tell people first try to take a vitamin, like vitamin D for sure, take supplements like, um, dim, which is a very good supplement that prevents high levels of estrogen in our body that come from plastics and chemicals that are, you know, dangerous in our society that we put in our body.

So. Bad foods, um, create bad fats. Good fats create good hormones, and we have to remember that. So we, we can really change that, you know. But when women have really bad hot flashes, night sweats, they lose their sex drive. Sometimes I give them a little hormones to kind of like teach their body again to do the right things.

Okay? And, but a lot of these things, um. Make a big difference in the sense that like, especially if someone has a surgical hysterectomy, it’s really hard to just produce your own hormones again ’cause you don’t have the, um, the capacity. But eating lots of vegetables and eating lots of lentils and eating like some of the um, blue zone food groups, they produce their own hormones.

So it’s pretty 

Ruth Soukup: exciting. Yeah. And good facts. That is very cool. So, I mean, it sounds like it’s really case by case basis, but you could manage pretty much for most people without, you know, other extenuating circumstances could manage a lot of this with just eating the right things. We talk about healthy fats and cutting out sugar and, and all of those things.

That’s right, right. In my wheelhouse. So I love, I love hearing that and I love knowing that. Um, but I’m still like, okay, how do we pull in more endorphins? So. Tell me a little bit like about how the science of, how all the endorphins work and, and why that’s so, so important for your 

Dr. Gowri Rocco: health. Well, the endorphins are made in the gut health.

The gut health is critical. Like when I always see my patients, the first thing we talk about is how they’re eating because it determines your gut health. And gut health means like the gut terrain, like are you eating like alkaline? Um, are you eating real whole foods? And one of the best way to neutralize.

Gut health is really exercise. Exercise a probiotic naturally. And I encourage people to cut out sugars and process foods because that fixes how you absorb the nutrients that you’re eating. And two, it corrects your immune system. ’cause immune system’s all made in the gut. And three, the most importantly, you release endorphins in the GI system.

So that way you release serotonin, epinephrine, norepinephrine, dopamine. It’s all released in the GI system and it binds in the brain. You see? Yes. So the most important thing really is your gut terrain. And if you have a great GI system, you have a great skin, you have great skin, you have great immune system, and your body can fight dementia.

’cause type three, you know, diabetes is dementia, is is Alzheimer’s. So it means it’s too much sugar. It’s not just rusting your organs, it’s rusting your brain. Yeah. So the first try to, first thing I work with my patients is really teaching ’em to cut out sugar and processed foods. And then really everything else, food, that all comes back to that.

Mm-hmm. Always. It’s 

Ruth Soukup: like the cure to almost everything. 

Dr. Gowri Rocco: Yes, it is. It is. ’cause it improves your, um, endorphin release, it improves your immune system and your hormone balance. 

Ruth Soukup: Wow. And it’s so, it’s so simple. It’s so like in theory, right? It’s so, so simple. That it, it al it comes back to that over and over and over again.

And yet for so many people, this is like, and I, and I know it’s, I mean, we could go, we could go deep down the rabbit hole of big food conspiracies and what they’re doing. Oh no, it’s true. I know society, but it’s like. On a practical level for so many, for so many women, it’s so hard to cut that piece out and to, or to even go, oh, nope, that’s too much.

That’s too extreme. Like, it’s not extreme to be taking all these medications and doing and ha and having all of these health issues. I don’t know. What do you say to that? 

Dr. Gowri Rocco: You know, I tell them if they don’t wanna change and be better that you know, I’m not gonna be able to help ’em. And I tell people, you know what?

You have to be accountable for how you eat. How you think it’s your body. I can’t make you do anything. And if you don’t wanna be better, think about why. You know, so it, a lot of it has to do with introspection and when, when we’re not, like when I’m not in front of my patient, when we’re not together, working together, what are they gonna do on their own?

That makes a difference because it’s 90% them and maybe 10% me, a lot of ’em think it’s me, but it’s not. It’s them. They’re doing all the hard work. They’re making the right decisions. They are doing all the effort. So all I can do is provide ’em education and teach them and guide them. But you know, it’s up to us to be accountable for our actions, how we think, how we eat, how we sleep.

So, you know, we have to be willing to take. So if you don’t wanna be better, then you have to accept what’s happening, because that’s the reality. Yes, it 

Ruth Soukup: is. And I love that. I love, I love the tough, the tough love. So what kind of transformations have you seen in, in your practice for patients who have like actually taken responsibility and implemented what you’re, what you’re saying?

Dr. Gowri Rocco: You know, uh, I’m so, I feel very blessed. I love my patients. They’re high retention, like, you know, I’ve treated them for decades, you know, and, um, I see them and their kids, and now some of ’em have grandkids. It’s, it’s amazing, like just to follow someone’s life and family growth and, um, so we know.

Transformation comes in multiple seasons. Like after COVID, we, we had to worry about immune system more, not just like, you know, cancer prevention or heart disease prevention. So if you teach someone the right tools, like how to eat right. How to improve their own immune system. They pretty much have it like, I call it cruise control.

Like I teach ’em like how to fix a major thing so they can do what they have to do at home. And they don’t always have to see me. I don’t really prescribe antibiotics that much at all. So they’re fixing their own immune system to be better, you know, and all I do is keep in check with them and make sure that they are taking the right supplements that are good for them or the right, you know, medications if they need ’em, like hormones.

But really like, I mean, I have patients that are well in their eighties, like 87, that just kind the, uh, you know, Mitri, pji in Peru. Like, they’re amazing. Like, I feel like my couples that age, or my patients that age, they age with vitality, with clear brain and healthy sound bodies. Like, they’re not like debilitated.

They’re not, they’re, they’re living life. They’re scuba diving. They’re diving, they’re playing golf, and that’s what it should be. You know, they’re, they’re active creatures in the world. I love that and I, I, I love it too. ’cause it inspires me. I’m like, yay. Like my people are like living life. They’re spending their money on, on living and not spending life and spending all their money on someone taking care of them.

Ruth Soukup: Yes. Yes. Oh, I, I. Resonates so deeply with that. And I would think about like when about, I don’t know, it was probably 15 years ago now. My husband’s mom came to live with us and we were her caregiver for a couple of years, right? And so, and at the time my children were small, like I had a baby and a 3-year-old.

And so it was this weird time, you know, where we were like caring for a 85-year-old woman and also babies at the same time. And I just remember like. All we did was take her to doctor’s appointments, one doctor after another doctor after another doctor and all, and our whole half of our day was medication management.

What pills she’s supposed to be taking at what time. Right. And it wasn’t until later that, you know, ’cause it was just in the, this. Crazy season of life that you don’t, you, you all you can do is react to it and not really be introspective at it. Right? You’re just, this is what we do right now. And, uh, and it wasn’t until later, until after she died that when I really had a chance to reflect on how sad.

That was right to her end of life. And how sad that was because she, she, she, you know, she’s on all these medications and her whole life was consumed with what pill am I supposed to be taking at what time? And that’s all she really thought about. And she was always just worried about it. And yet for what?

Because she died anyways and she didn’t die in, in. Like living li Well, exactly what you’re about. Yeah. Vitality, living life and vitality and living life to the fullest and having that And it and, and now, you know, it’s been so many years, my husband and I have had so many chances to think about that and to reflect on what we want in our older age.

And it’s not that it’s. It’s to like live as well as we can so that we can enjoy life, uh, for as long as we have it right. For as long as we are blessed to be on this earth, we are able to just do that with, with full vitality. And I really, I, I think about that all the time is just the medication management and the, and the fact that there.

Not a single one of her doctors was concerned with her quality of life. They were never asking like, what is the quality of life? Or even like, what other medications are you on? Well, you 

Dr. Gowri Rocco: know, in all fairness, I, I think that, that, that really has to be our decision as individuals. Yeah. They’re just trying to make her survive.

They’re just trying to give her that extra day the next day. Yes. But that’s our quality of life is determined by what our effort. Like what you do today determines 10 years from now. Yes. So I try to put it back on people because I own it. It’s my decision to eat that. It’s my decision to sacrifice, like, like sleep for, you know, doing this.

And I, I feel like, you know, we’re in a, it’s so important to empower people and say, Hey. If you wanna be better and you wanna get off these prescriptions, you wanna graduate taking these me medications, then you have to up your game. You have to eat better, you have to move more. And you may not, you could maybe only move 10 steps today, but maybe tomorrow it’s another 10 steps and it’s another 12 steps.

But you’re right. It’s very sad to see that and witness it. But it’s, 

Ruth Soukup: but I hope people are taking to heart what you’re saying right now, like really listening to it. And I will give this like word of warning because her pers her entire personality her entire life of, well, for as long as I knew her, but my husband said she was like, that is, she was a, a.

I will always defer to the experts person. So if my doctor says this, I will do this. She would never Yeah. Question one single thing. If a doctor said she needed this pill, then she needed that pill. Right? Like she would never question it. And that’s not what you’re saying. You’re saying take onus for your own health take.

Yeah. Responsibility for your own health. Find a, find a functional health doctor who will Yes. Who will, ’cause that’s mm-hmm. Work with you and give you answers. Exactly. But you are a capable person and there is no excuse, especially in this day and age, to not be doing your own research and looking at your own things and understanding what is out there and what options are out there, because that’s right.

At the end of the day, you’re the one who has to live 

Dr. Gowri Rocco: with the 

Ruth Soukup: Yes. 

Dr. Gowri Rocco: And you’re the one who’s gonna take that medicine. Like when, when you go to see a doctor for high blood pressure, our goal is to lower the blood pressure. Okay. There’s multiple ways. A lot of people, I’ll be honest with you, when I tell them, look, this is what we’re gonna, they’re like, oh my God, just gimme the pill.

Are you kidding me? That’s too much work. Mm-hmm. So you have to really understand like, is your, you know, do you wanna do it the right way or the long way? You know, like. Which is a long way. Or do you wanna do it just a quick fix? So it’s not up to doctors to say us, to make those decisions all the time. We get, we have to present options.

That’s why functional medicine is different because we present more options and we’re willing to work with you and teach you. But I think medicine’s after what’s happened in our country now, especially right now, we’re seeing dynamic changes happening. Like doctors want to go back to the roots, like, you know, even doctors are damaged.

Like nurses are damaged, like our society is damaged by food, by the toxins in our environment. And it’s really sad. Like we have to provide people different options, not just medicines, but that’s usually what insurance companies want you to do is give them a drug. So I don’t blame my colleagues. I really think that everyone has to be accountable for their own health, you know?

Yeah. And people have to ask like, is there another option for me? Like, what else can we do, doc? Like, because sometimes that’s what most people want is just a prescription. Yes. And you are not in the majority, Ruth, you are educated. You, you dive in, you read, you, you find out you’re an advocate for your health.

But not everybody does that. 

Ruth Soukup: No, they don’t. And that’s where I, hopefully a podcast like this where you’re Listen, yes. It opens up. Yep. It’s opening your eyes to know, like you can’t advocate for yourself. You can’t ask questions. There are alternatives, and you might not also be presented with those alternatives if you, and because, and you’re right, like it’s the, a lot of the doctors are product of the A system, a medical system that is bought and paid for by the pharmaceutical industries.

That’s how they trained. Mm-hmm. That’s what they know. And so they don’t even know to, to. Offer anything different unless they’ve gone out and done their own research and Yes. A little bit. Is that on them too? I would say so, but I think Yeah. Oh, for sure. For sure. And it’s a systemic problem, right? Yes.

There’s, there’s a systemic, and I, and I hope you’re right, right? Like we’ve seen some of the changes that have just been happening. I know, I hope that I’m very, very hopeful that the, the conversation in this country is changing. But man, this was a good conversation today and I feel like we keep going forever.

Yes. We are out of time, so, um. Just to follow up where I’m sure everybody who’s listening is gonna be like, do you see people online? Because I want you to be my doctor. So how, how can people follow up with you? Where can they find you online? What do, what options do you have? And tell us, tell us all the things.

Dr. Gowri Rocco: Um, you know what? I don’t really have that big online presence. I am you. I have, I have my book I wrote for everybody to read. ’cause I feel like if I can’t see everyone, at least I can teach them my pearls of knowledge. So it’s called Growing Younger and they can get that book if they wanna read. Start off with that.

’cause it’s a lot of valuable information. Um. And I wrote it myself. You know, I really wrote it in plain English, not just medical lingo. And then also, um, you know what, I do a lot of fun stuff. Like, um, I have a website. It’s drgowrirocco.com. And, and I’m, you know, I just. I try to do what I can do ’cause I have three kids and I work and I love it and I really try to keep myself balanced and self care.

So it’s, it’s not too, it’s just like a moms and pop shop. So I just do what I can do for my people and I love what I do.  

Ruth Soukup: I love that. Well if you wanna follow up and get Dr. Rocco’s book and find, see your website and all the things, we will make sure to link to all of those in the show notes.

And this was amazing. Thank you so much for being here today. Oh, my pleasure, my pleasure. Story and love what you’re doing, so keep it up. Thank you, Ruth. Thank you so much.

The post How Orgasms and Laughter Actually Reverse Aging with Dr. Gowri Rocco appeared first on Thinlicious.

Your kids are watching. 

And I don’t mean they’re judging you—I mean they’re learning from you. Every diet you go on, every time you beat yourself up about your body, every separate meal you make for yourself while feeding them something different—they’re absorbing it all. 

And if you’re like me, that realization might just be the wake-up call you need to finally ditch the diet mentality and create something that actually works for your whole family.

If this is your first time reading the Thinlicious blog, here’s what you should know about me: 

I’m a 47-year-old woman who struggled with my weight for over a decade—starting probably in my early 30s—failing at diet after diet, until I finally realized I needed to take a completely different approach. 

Not just for me, but for my two teenage daughters who were watching my every move.

And that’s exactly what we’re diving into today. 

Because if you’re a mom trying to lose weight during perimenopause while still raising kids, you’re dealing with a unique set of challenges that most weight loss advice completely ignores.

You’re juggling hormones that are all over the place, energy that crashes at 2 PM, and a family that still needs to eat dinner every night. 

You barely have time to make one meal, let alone cook separately for yourself. And meanwhile, you’re worried about setting a good example for your kids while secretly beating yourself up every time you look in the mirror.

And oh friend, I’ve been there. 

And today, I want to share what I learned about making healthy changes that actually work for your whole family—not just you.

Because here’s the truth that my sister wisely told me years ago, right after I had my first daughter:

The mom sets the tone. 

Whether we like it or not, whether it feels fair or not, we’re the ones who create the culture in our homes. For food, for energy, for happiness and for everything else.

And that can either feel like a massive burden, or it can be the most empowering realization you’ve ever had.

So let’s talk about how to make it empowering.

The Wake-Up Call I Didn’t See Coming

Because you know what’s funny? 

For the longest time, I thought my kids were completely oblivious to my weight struggles. They were just kids, right? 

And kids love their moms no matter what. 

They’re not paying attention to whether mom’s on another juice cleanse or counting Weight Watchers points or making herself a sad little salad while everyone else gets pizza.

Except they are. They’re watching everything.

And it wasn’t until my daughters started getting older—especially once they hit their teens—that I realized just how much they had been absorbing all those years.

I started thinking about my own childhood, and I could so clearly remember being in second grade and watching my mom constantly dieting. 

She was always on Jenny Craig or Weight Watchers, always giving herself a smaller plate, always talking about needing to lose weight. 

And my older sister picked up on all of that. 

She was six years older than me, so when she was entering her awkward teenage years, I was still just a little girl.

And I distinctly remember her telling me, when I was only in second grade, “Ruth, we gotta go on a diet. We gotta lose weight.” 

And then she taught me to only take a little bit of food at dinner and to chew every bite 25 times.

I was eight. 

And that was the beginning of a really messed up relationship with food that followed me all the way through high school, where I struggled with a full-blown eating disorder.

And looking back at that time in high school where there were a whole lot of other traumatic things happening in the background, I know that for me food felt like the one area of my life that I could control.

But it definitely messed me up, for a long time.

And as a mom with two daughters, I knew I did NOT want that for them. 

I couldn’t change the decade of crazy dieting I’d already done in front of them, but I could change what happened next.

And that realization—that my daughters were watching and learning from everything I did—was actually one of the biggest catalysts for me finally getting serious about changing my approach to health. 

Not going on another diet, but actually changing my lifestyle.

Because I realized that whatever I was going to eat, whatever I was going to cook, whatever I was going to model for my family—that had to be something we could all do together. 

I was done with separate meals. I was done with starving myself while feeding my family. 

I was done with saying negative things about my body in front of my girls.

From that point forward, they were going to see me nourishing my body, not depriving it. 

They were going to see me eating real food, not diet food. 

And they were going to learn that taking care of yourself isn’t about restriction—it’s about giving your body what it needs to thrive.

The Problem with the Diet Mentality (Especially for Moms)

Because here’s the thing about trying to lose weight when you’re still raising kids: 

The traditional diet approach is basically set up to make us fail. 

Because most diets are built around restriction and control, and life with kids is anything but controlled.

The biggest myth that keeps so many of us totally stuck is this idea that you have to cut calories, cut back, and be super restrictive to lose weight. 

And when you’re raising kids, that basically means you either have to cook separate food for you and your family, or you have to eat way less, or your kids are going to see you eating completely different things.

I don’t know about you, but I barely have time to cook one meal for my family, much less something separate for myself. 

And I would dare to guess that most other moms are the same way. 

So then we think, “Well, I can’t get healthy because I don’t have time to cook separate meals.” And we stay stuck.

But here’s what I learned: you don’t have to eat differently from your family to lose weight. 

You just have to eat better. All of you.

And when I made that shift—when I stopped thinking about “diet food” and started thinking about “real food”—everything changed. 

Not just for me, but for my whole family.

And honestly that feels so obvious to me now, that of course this is the solution, but it wasn’t for a long time, and I don’t think it’s obvious until you really start thinking about it.

Because as a family, we ate a lot of crap for a long time, without even realizing it.

The Stockpile That Opened My Eyes

When my kids were little, like really little, I was all about saving money on groceries. 

In fact, that’s how I started my original business, Living Well Spending Less.

I taught people how to coupon, and I was really good at it. 

I had this pantry that was packed full of food that I’d gotten for practically nothing.

I’d go to the grocery store with a huge stack of coupons and walk away with $300 worth of groceries that I paid $10. At the time, it felt amazing. And I was so proud of myself.

I gave zero thought to the fact that most of what I was buying was absolute garbage.

Because now look back at pictures of that stockpile pantry and think, “No wonder I struggled with my weight for 10 years!” 

Pretty much everything in there was processed garbage. Rice-a-Roni, Hamburger Helper, Stovetop Stuffing—all the stuff I was feeding my family thinking I was doing great because it was cheap and easy.

But think about it–what do all those big food conglomerates give you coupons for? 

It’s not for whole, healthy foods that will nourish your body.

They give you coupons for all the processed crap. 

Because that’s the stuff they make all the money on. So that’s what they want you to eat. And I was probably doing what 90% of Americans are doing, which is why we have an obesity crisis in this country.

I wasn’t trying to poison my family. 

I was just buying the food that was on sale, that I could use coupons for, that seemed normal.

But all that processed food was creating a crisis of insulin resistance in my body—and probably in my kids’ bodies too.

Once I realized that, everything clicked. 

If I could just cut out the processed crap and start feeding my family nutrient-dense protein and vegetables for every meal, we could all be healthier together. 

And my kids could eat that too.

And not only that–and this is the honest truth–they loved it. 

They did not complain one single bit when I started cooking healthier, more nutrient-dense meals for our entire family.

They didn’t miss the crap. 

They were actually pretty thrilled that I was cooking real food every night.

Building a Food Culture That Works for Everyone

And I do want to speak to this a little bit more, because I know this is something that a lot of moms worry about–that if you start cooking better food for your family, that your kids won’t eat it.

So here’s what I want you to understand: when I say “my kids loved it,” I don’t mean they immediately started cheering for broccoli, even though they actually do love broccoli.

What I really mean is that we’ve built a food culture in our home that made healthy eating feel normal and enjoyable, not like a punishment.

Ever since my kids were little, we’ve had two big rules about food in our house that I think made a huge difference:

Rule number one is that you show gratitude for anyone who cooks for you, even if you don’t love what’s on your plate. 

I’ve always tried to raise my kids to understand that cooking takes time and effort, and when somebody takes the time to prepare a meal for you—whether it’s mom, dad, or you’re at someone else’s house—that meal took time and effort to create. It’s a gift.

And your job is to show gratitude for that effort. You don’t have to lie and say you love it, but you do have to say thank you, just like you would for any other gift. 

It’s basically the same way we teach our kids to say thank you, even when their great aunt Mildred gives them some ugly sweater that they’ll never wear. 

But that’s our first rule.

The second rule we’ve always had for our kids is that you’re not allowed to say you don’t like something until you’ve tried it at least three separate times. 

I read somewhere, at some point a long time ago, that kids’ palates aren’t developed enough to know whether they like things, but they’ll automatically say they don’t like things that are new and different. 

But usually, once something becomes familiar, they’ll actually enjoy it. 

So that became our rule: try it three separate three times before you can say you don’t like it.

And you know what? It worked. My kids are both total foodies now. 

And maybe that would’ve happened anyway, but I’m not sure–I see how picky a lot of their friends are and I’m glad that my kids aren’t that way.

They care about food, they like to cook and try new recipes, they like to participate in deciding what we’re going to eat. 

Right now we’re getting ready to go to Italy for a week to attend my niece’s wedding, and my oldest daughter has planned our itinerary around food. We’re doing cooking classes, and she has not only picked all the restaurants she wants to eat at, but made reservations so she knows we’ll be able to get in.

Just the other day, she made breakfast for the whole family, and prepared a “flight” of avocado toast—three different kinds, all super creative and delicious.

And not only that, I’ve noticed that they actually PREFER eating healthy, whole foods to processed junk. 

They choose it on their own. They pay attention to sugar. They eat lots of fruit and vegetables and protein.

And obviously they’re still teenagers, so they still eat crap sometimes, but I can see that they’ve already developed habits and preferences for the way that they eat that will serve them for life.

And that makes me really happy.

The Practical Side: Making It Work When Life Is Crazy

Okay, with all that said, let’s now get practical. 

Because I’m sure all of this sounds great in theory, but what does it actually look like when you’re dealing with work schedules, sports practices, homework, and all the chaos that comes with family life?

Because it can be a lot sometimes, right?

So the first thing I’ll tell you that has been a total game-changer for me is becoming super intentional about meal planning and food prep.

Every Sunday afternoon, I sit down to plan our meals for the week. 

I ask my kids for their schedules—when my daughter’s working, what nights she’s going to be home, when my other daughter has cheer practice or plans with friends. I want to know what nights they’re going to be home for dinner and what everybody’s schedules look like.

Then I ask them if they have any preferences or requests. 

And they usually do. 

They have tried-and-true favorites—salmon with Caesar salad, oven-baked steak, pesto chicken, egg roll in a bowl, any kind of bowl really. They love fish tacos and taco salad, Big Mac bowls. This week they both requested mozzarella stuffed meatballs with marinara and ricotta.

I actually like that they give me feedback on what they want, because it makes it easier for me to choose. 

If one daughter wants something and the other doesn’t, but one of them’s not going to be home, I’ll fit it into that day.

Then I create the schedule and print it out—everybody’s schedule and the meal plan—and I put it on the fridge. 

And let me just tell you, that little calendar on our fridge gets looked at all the time. It’s like our sanity saver. Everybody knows what we’re eating, everybody knows what’s going on.

Then I go grocery shopping, usually Sunday afternoon, and make sure I have all the food. 

Now that my youngest daughter has her driver’s license and is eager to drive everywhere, I’ll sometimes send her to Publix with the grocery list so that I don’t have to go.

And now I’ll also often have them cook meals on the days I work, either a recipe I choose or something they want to make.

My only real rules for what we are that it has to be whole foods, no processed crap, it has to include protein, and you can’t make the same thing over and over again. 

You have to try different things.

That’s actually been super helpful for the days I work—having a little help in the kitchen and not feeling like it’s all just on me.

I also do food prep on either Sunday or Monday. I’ll grill up a bunch of chicken and make chicken bowls or chicken salad. I make enough for the whole family because they like it too. 

Everyone—including my kids—like having food in the fridge that they can just grab and eat.

The Mindset Shift That Changes Everything

And while the meal planning and food prep is the practical thing that keeps me sane and keeps my healthy eating on track, when I look back at this huge shift in my life, I know there was something even bigger that made all the difference.

Basically, I had to completely change my mindset about what this whole process was supposed to look like.

I had to give up perfectionism. 

I had to accept that life with kids is busy and chaotic, and there are always going to be moments when you have to give yourself grace. There are going to be nights when you’re running between basketball games at two different schools and all you have time to grab is a hot dog and some peanuts from the concession stand. And that’s okay.

The key is accepting that this is a lifestyle change, not a diet. 

It’s not about being perfect or falling off the wagon and having to start over. It’s about making the best choice you can in any given situation and not beating yourself up when that choice isn’t perfect.

I kept reminding myself: big goals never happen all at once. They are only the result of small steps taken consistently over time.

And you know what? 

That mindset shift didn’t just help me—it helped my kids too. Because they saw me making the best choice I could in any situation without freaking out about it. 

They saw me nourishing my body consistently without obsessing about it. They learned that taking care of yourself isn’t about perfection—it’s about showing up and doing what you can.

When Hormones and Life Collide

But let’s be real about something: trying to make healthy changes during perimenopause is hard. 

Your hormones are all over the place. Your energy crashes at random times. Your mood can swing from fine to furious in about thirty seconds. 

And meanwhile, you’re still expected to keep everyone fed, get kids to practice, help with homework, and somehow hold it all together.

Some days, the last thing you want to do is meal prep or cook a healthy dinner. 

Some days, you just want to order pizza and be done with it. And guess what? Sometimes that’s exactly what you should do.

The difference is, when you’ve built a foundation of healthy habits, those off days don’t derail everything. They’re just part of life. 

Your kids see that sometimes life gets crazy, and you do what you need to do to get through it. But then you get back to taking care of yourself and your family.

That’s the beauty of making this a lifestyle instead of a diet. 

There’s no wagon to fall off of. There’s just life, and you’re navigating it as best you can.

The Ripple Effects You Don’t Expect

But here’s what I didn’t expect when I started this journey: how much it would impact my daughters in ways that have nothing to do with food.

Because when you stop criticizing your body and start nourishing it instead, your kids learn to do the same. When you stop saying negative things about yourself and start showing gratitude for what your body can do, they absorb that too.

I made a really conscious decision to be intentional about saying positive things about myself and my body in front of my girls. And I talked to my husband about it too, about how important it was for them to see him complimenting me and speaking positively about me in front of them.

Not because we weren’t already doing that, but because we wanted to be really intentional about it. Because we wanted our daughters to grow up with good self-esteem, and we knew that the way they were going to develop that was by seeing us model it.

And it worked. 

My daughters are now 16 and 18, and they have such a healthy relationship with food and their bodies. They don’t have the same hangups I did at their age. They see food as nourishment, not as the enemy. 

They see taking care of themselves as normal, not as something to feel guilty about.

The Truth About “Winning on Multiple Fronts”

The truth is that being a mom is hard. 

Getting healthy is hard. 

Keeping up with life is hard. 

There are a lot of things in our day-to-day life that cause strain and make it difficult and wear you down.

But this—changing your lifestyle in a way that your family can actually participate in—this is how you win on multiple fronts.

You get to win with your health and start to feel better and have way more energy. 

You get to win with your kids because they think the food is amazing and they’re excited about what they’re eating. 

And you get to win by teaching them healthy habits that are going to stay with them for the rest of their lives.

It’s not about life magically getting easier. It’s about making some parts of life easier by including your family instead of working against them.

Your Starting Point: The Mindset Shift

So if you’re listening to this and feeling overwhelmed, here’s what I want you to start with: 

The mindset shift.

This isn’t a diet. It’s a lifestyle.

Stop thinking about what you need to cut out or restrict or change dramatically. Start thinking about what you’re already doing that works, and how you can make it a little bit better.

The key is to start where you are and upgrade what you can. 

Sometimes it’s not about making big, dramatic changes all at once. Sometimes it’s about figuring out what already works for you and finding a way to make it a little bit better.

The Freedom You’re Really After

Because here’s what I know for sure: this whole journey isn’t really about weight loss. It’s about freedom.

Freedom from the constant mental chatter about food and your body. Freedom from the guilt and shame that comes with diet culture. Freedom from feeling like you’re failing at everything.

When you stop fighting against your life and start working with it, when you stop trying to be perfect and start focusing on progress, when you stop hiding your healthy choices from your kids and start including them—that’s when everything changes.

Not just for you, but for your whole family.

And in a world that’s constantly telling us we’re not enough, that we need to do more, be more, try harder—creating a home where everyone feels nourished and valued and healthy is pretty revolutionary.

So start there, friend. 

Start with the mindset that this is a lifestyle, not a diet. Start with the belief that you can include your family in this journey instead of hiding from them. Start with the understanding that progress, not perfection, is what gets you where you want to go.

Because you’re not just changing your health—you’re changing your family’s relationship with food and their bodies for generations to come.

And that’s worth doing imperfectly.

Final Thoughts

If you’re ready to stop fighting against your life and start working with it, if you’re ready to create healthy habits that actually work for your whole family, then I want you to check out our free starter guide HERE.

It’s called “Flip the Switch,” and it will explain in detail why it feels like your metabolism has stopped working and what you can do to get it started again—without making your life harder or more complicated.

Because the truth is, sustainable weight loss isn’t about willpower or restriction or perfect meal plans. It’s about understanding how your body actually works and giving it what it needs to thrive. And when you do that in a way that includes your family, everybody wins.

So don’t wait for the perfect time or the perfect plan. Start where you are, with what you have, and make it a little bit better. Your future self—and your kids—will thank you.

Alright, that’s all I have for you today. If this was helpful, I’d love it if you could share it with another mom who might need to hear this message. And don’t forget to subscribe so you don’t miss future episodes.

And I’ll see you soon for another new episode.

The post How to Lose Weight During Perimenopause When You Still Have Kids at Home appeared first on Thinlicious.

Welcome to the Feel Better Live Free podcast, brought to you by Thin. I’m your host, Ruth Soukup, and here we’ll talk about everything from the science of weight loss to practical tips for making your health a priority in the midst of a busy life. It is a little bit nerdy, a little bit funny, and a little bit revolutionary.

So buckle up friend, because it’s about to get real.

For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Ruth Soukup and I’m the founder of Thinlicious and the creator of the Thin Adapted System, as well as the New York Times bestselling author of seven books. And today we are chatting with the incredible Dr.

Melanie Tidman, a true pioneer when it comes to connecting the dots. Between chronic illness, cognitive function, and nutrition. With more than 45 years of experience in occupational therapy, educational psychology, and health science, Dr. Tudman has helped thousands of patients improve their outcomes, not just by treating symptoms, but by getting to the root causes.

She currently serves as the director of clinical Research for the Colorado Parkinson Foundation, where she’s led groundbreaking studies exploring how ketogenic nutrition and metabolic therapies can support brain health in patients with Parkinson’s diseases and other neuro degenerative conditions. Try saying that three times fast.

She also chairs the research academy at the Society of Metabolic Health Practitioners, helping other clinicians learn how to conduct meaningful life-changing research. She’s pretty amazing and today she is sharing some truly eye-opening insights. I know what’s actually happening in the brain during chronic illness, how metabolic health plays a critical role, and what you can start doing right now to protect and support your brain for the long haul.

This is such an important conversation, especially if you are worried about aging well or protecting your cognitive health, or if you know anyone who is struggling with any sort of neurodegenerative condition, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s. There’s a lot to get from this conversation, so let’s dive right in.

Thank you so much for being here. I am so excited to talk to you about this topic today. 

Dr. Melanie Tidman: Well, it’s wonderful to meet you, Ruth, and to be, uh, on your, on your program. And I love talking about, uh, this research in Parkinson’s and, and other things that I’m doing, so thank you. You’re welcome. 

Ruth Soukup: So, so I’m just gonna start with the question that I ask everybody who, uh, comes on the podcast.

But let’s just hear the overview of who you are, what you do, and how you got to be doing what you are now. 

Dr. Melanie Tidman: Okay. Thanks so much. Well, I believe everyone is kind of born with a mission. I knew that I wanted to help people with their health since I was six years old. So. I feel very privileged that for 45 years I’ve been an occupational therapist, working mostly in neurological and neurodegenerative disease and neurosurgery intensive care.

Starting in newborns clear through. My oldest patient was 105. Um, and through that journey, uh, I just. Develop such a love for patients and just being able to help them however I could. Well then I ended up being a patient, you know, there’s nothing better, in some ways, harder for a medical professional. I.

Then to become a patient. Yes. And to see what the other side of that feels like. So I went on off after my occupational therapy degree to get a master’s degree in educational psychology, really looking at the mental health needs of my patients, and then decided I wanted to do research. So I got a doctoral degree, uh, in health science and, and.

You know, that was kind of my educational journey. Well, in 2013, after a lifetime of really being very health conscious, I was mostly a vegetarian, very little if ever, red meat. I exercised. I got sicker and sicker and sicker, and in 2013, had developed some rather severe symptoms. And I, I, you know, I’m really thankful for this.

Even though it was kind of the darkest time of my life, I got to experience what my poor patients experience. Mm. Going from specialist to specialist to specialist. Nobody could tell me what was wrong. And my symptoms were just getting worse and worse. And I was on five major medications and I had heart, a heart condition, and I, uh, it was, you name it, it was there.

And I ended up at Mayo Clinic where somebody at, they, they found a small brain tumor at Mayo Clinic, but then they said, you know, look at your diet. Investigate your diet. So I came home and I delved deep into all of the neurological research, which I had worked in, uh, neurology, neurosurgery for years. And then I really felt like I was led to the first low carb summit in South Africa where the research they presented was just this eye-opening experience for me.

And so being the type A individual I am, I came home, I downloaded like 1200 studies. I read studies. I, I just said, okay, I’ve been mostly pseudo vegetarian for years. I’m gonna swing in the other direction and relate to that. Oh yeah. I mean, that’s just how I do life, right? And so within a month, my symptoms were gone.

Within six months I was off my medications and within a, within a year, I had no brain tumor. I had no medical conditions. I was on no meds. I was lifting heavy power lifting. I was teaching aerobic dance classes, which I still do that. And. It was just one of those miracles that I feel very privileged that I got to experience and then.

Right after that, I think it was just within, you know, just a few weeks. Uh, my mother’s neighbor was on the board of the Colorado Parkinson Foundation and we were talking, and she knew through my mother that I had had all these medical conditions. I was just not in a good place. And then we started talking.

I said, well, they’re all gone. And I’m on nom meds and the conditions they said couldn’t be cured or gone, and this is how I did it. And she and the board at the Colorado Parkinson Foundation said, we, we need help with our health. We’re, we’re all just declining. Well, several of them go on a full blown ketogenic approach.

They’re getting better, they’re getting off meds. They’re starting to do just their life. The quality of their life just changed. And so the board at CPF contacted me and said, we want you to, to research in Parkinson’s using Ketogenics and. How much money do you need? And from 2018 till the present, uh, I have been conducting clinical studies for the Colorado Parkinson’s Foundation using this approach just.

An amazing group of people, an incredible mission that they have to give their patients alternatives or adjunctive treatments to the medications they’re on simultaneously. A student of mine, a doctoral student, joined my research team, she and her husband, and they’re still on my research team, Dr. Dawn White, Dr.

Tim White, and. We are recruiting for our sixth study. Right now. We have five published studies and of course, society and metabolic health practitioners can’t say enough about that organization. Another open door for me because metabolic health is. Really what I do. Right? And so I ha have been working with that organization and, uh, running a small telehealth practice that I do as a volunteer and, you know, it’s all just so exciting.

I teach university students for. Three universities. Uh, and then I volunteer teaching aerobic dance classes and power lifting classes to seniors. So I teach. You’re like a powerhouse. Oh, I tell you. I got way too much to do. Well, I feel like in 2013 I was given a second chance and yeah. I didn’t wanna waste this chance to serve, which is what I really feel led to do.

So thank 

Ruth Soukup: you for letting me share my story. That’s amazing. That’s an incredible story. And so, I’m so, so interested in this. I did share, I shared with you right before we, we started record recording that, um, a close friend of our family’s. Um, it has Parkinson’s and so this is definitely a topic that we’ve talked a lot and we talk, they’re very close friends, so we talk to them a lot about things and treatments mm-hmm.

And what they’re trying. And it, and it’s a, it’s a devastating disease to watch it’s, and to have someone close to you, um, struggling with that. And, and so I, I just, I’m so curious with this foundation that you’re with, they seem so open to Right. Ketogenic metabolic health, like, there’s so much, I mean, and I talk about all of this stuff all the time on, on this podcast, right?

We ta, we talk a lot about low carb and the benefits and all the things from just a general health perspective, a weight loss perspective. So we don’t need to go into all those details of what that is. But what I, I think the part that really strikes me is that. Is, is how much research you’re doing on that topic and the, and the, the acceptance that you’re getting from it.

Because the medical community as a whole is not very accepting to the idea that metabolic health is a foundation of health in general, right? Like it’s all, it’s. Right. Meds. Meds, meds. We’re gonna go to pharmaceuticals. It’s all like, if they can’t patent it and make money off of it, they are not interested.

Right. In talking about it. That’s right. So how do you get around all of that and how have you managed to like really do all this research and why is it, why are people not shouting it from the rooftops either? 

Dr. Melanie Tidman: Yeah. Well that is such a great question and I find it’s really fascinating to me. I find there’s such a disconnect between.

Food and health, I don’t get it because it is our fuel and we know from pediatric development, I was a pediatric therapist for a number of years, that babies need to have just this incredible surge in neuro development and organ development and organ system development and bone development, all of that.

Well. The good Lord knew we needed to be born with good fat sources to grow our brains and protect them. So guess what? Babies are in ketosis when they’re born and they stay in ketosis if they’re breastfed primarily. And so. Working in pediatric development and then segueing into neurodegenerative disease diseases.

It was just an easy transition to see, well, biochemically, this makes a lot of sense for the brain. The problem in Parkinson’s is the meds help a little. They primarily are used to try to manage the motor symptoms. Mm-hmm. But there are so many other symptoms to Parkinson’s than motor. Yeah. In fact, I think it’s the non-motor symptoms that interfere with quality of life almost more than the motor symptoms do.

And the meds don’t touch that. Yeah, that’s Can you talk about some of those? Sure. So because of the problem with dopamine production in the brain, dopamine, I call it our feel good neurochemical. It’s the one that motivates us. It’s the one that, you know, gives us, um, more emotional stability. It gives us kind of.

That pleasure response? Well, it’s very downregulated in Parkinson’s, so a large majority of patients with Parkinson’s have depression or will develop it, have anxiety, or will develop it. Have cognitive issues, memory issues. They have apathy, huge apathy. They just don’t feel like initiating anything. They also have mountains of fatigue.

It’s like walking around with a huge boulder on your shoulders all the time for them, they have sleep dysregulation. Dopamine is a huge, uh, regulator of our sleep and circadian rhythms and brain rhythms and REM rhythms. And then our, uh, sleep quality, our sleepiness during the day. That’s very debilitating.

Then with the tremor, they don’t wanna be in public, in social settings. If you can appreciate that. Most of our social lives are developed around food, right? So we’re going out to eat and they don’t wanna do that because many of them, the tremors so bad, they can’t keep the food on their fork, they can’t drink.

It ends up all over them. Many of them have swallowing and chewing problems. It’s very debilitating, very socially isolating, which feeds that, that depression. Simultaneously with dopamine not being, uh, very well regulated. They have a huge sugar and process carbohydrate addiction because the brain is dysregulating that glucose anyway.

Yes. So it’s almost like they feel like they have to get it in the brain is craving something right. And sugar and sugar 

Ruth Soukup: will trigger a dopamine response that I absolutely that together before. But yeah, absolutely absolute sense. And all of the food. That are in engineering all the food to, to release dopamine.

That makes sense. Right, exactly. Yeah. 

Dr. Melanie Tidman: So many of my patients with Parkinson’s come to me with full-blown diabetes that they’ve had for years because they just can’t regulate their glucose. They’re very insulin resistance, many of them. It’s like a, a comorbidity that I see. All the time have metabolic syndrome.

They have high blood pressure. They’re overweight or obese. They, their glucose is dysregulated. Their HDL, the good guys are very low. Uh, so they have both things and I believe and have studied that metabolic syndrome. Really affects their Parkinson’s symptoms in a very detrimental way. So if you can make them metabolically healthier, you can start influencing those symptoms in Parkinson’s as well, which makes sense.

Ruth Soukup: Can you talk about that a little bit more about what this Yes. You had done now five, five published studies and you’re working on the six right? So what have your studies shown and indicated, or, I don’t know what the term is, but No, 

Dr. Melanie Tidman: that’s absolutely it. What have they indicated?

Because we know that studies show trends, they help you generate hypotheses. It’s rare that a study will prove anything, but you use studies to build new studies, and I can say that I am. Honored and privileged to stand on the shoulders of former research that’s being done in this space. Dr. Matthew Phillips in New Zealand is one of my, I, I’m kind of like a fan girl.

He’s one of my idols. I think he’s just phenomenal in his application of low carb approaches and fasting approaches in Parkinson’s and other diseases. And then Dr. Steven Coane work in Canada on the use of. Blood ketones and its effect on not only memory and cognition, but protection neuroprotection, especially in Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.

So I get to stand on his research and then Dom Dino’s group and the research they’re doing with nasa. In terms of blood ketones and their protective qualities to present, prevent seizures in Navy seals and astronauts in high oxygen environments. I mean, there’s so much out there that I get the privilege of basing my studies on, so.

I have published a 12 week study that’s three months and a 24 week study. That’s six months on using this approach in Parkinson’s, primarily for symptoms of Parkinson’s, anxiety, and depression. I. And of course in all my studies being a metabolic health practitioner, I’m looking at metabolic markers.

Mm-hmm. Your glucose and your fasting insulin and your triglycerides and you know, your inflammatory markers, which frequently in my folks are way off the charts. Mm-hmm. The brain is exquisitely sensitive to inflammation. It’s very protective of itself, and if you have systemic inflammation from one of these metabolic conditions, you are gonna really tax your brain in terms of its ability to protect those delicate neuronal pathways and networks.

So. 12 and 24 week studies both showed a significant reduction in depression and anxiety. Wow. And significant improvements in all health biomarkers across the board. Now, as a researcher, I expect, well, maybe one variable improve, or maybe two, I didn’t expect, like all eight. Yeah. To improve in those studies, and they did.

One of the most significant ones that illustrates this metabolic health foundation for declines in Parkinson’s was a gentleman case study I published who was morbidly obese, well over 300 pounds had. All the markers for metabolic syndrome, high blood pressure, and he was diabetic and his, uh, HDL was very low, high waist circumference.

And then addition to that, he was basically bedridden on. Many medications for pain, for depression, for anxiety, for his blood sugar, you name it. He was on it. He, uh, long story short, he started my study bedridden. I. And diabetic and 300 pounds. Ended my study 24 weeks later, walking around his neighborhood, working out at a local gym.

He’d lost over 60 pounds. Wow. And returned all of his biomarkers to normal Wow. And was off all or most of his medications now. That’s incredible. That’s powerful. It’s.

So you just, the connection between food and health, we’ve got to break through the bias that food’s not that 

Ruth Soukup: powerful because it Yes. Really is. It’s everything. I mean, it really, yes. It really, really truly is. So do you find, now you’ve done two of these studies at the 12 week and the 24 week, do you find that the, the, the people that you’re working with.

Seeing such significant results that they continue even beyond the study do, like, is it, is it almost a no brainer for them or do they kind of slip off? What do you have, what have you found? Do you follow up? 

Dr. Melanie Tidman: That’s such a great question and it’s amazing to me when they fall off, especially after the benefits that they’ve seen, but I’ll tell you why that is.

Mm-hmm. It’s this. Poor dopamine regulation and our toxic food environment. Mm-hmm. So one of the problems that my patients find is, yeah, they’re seeing benefits, they’re getting off their meds, they’re able to function, but their family, their friends, their social environments, our food environments are so.

Um, detrimental to their maintenance of this approach. Yes. Some of them stay on it and they’re on it and they’re convinced and they’re, they’ll never change. Yeah. And others they just, and, and I’ve experienced it myself. Yeah. Of course. I’m the type of personality that hey, doesn’t care. Yeah. It brought me back from a place that I don’t wanna go back to.

Right. I mean, I’m getting to live the life life now that I always wanted, that I’m not gonna go back to where I would try to work out and end up in bed. I. Right. ’cause I couldn’t hardly move and I’m not gonna go back to where I was having these seizure-like activities and ending up unconscious on the floor.

And I’m not gonna go back to being on CPAP for eight years with severe sleep apnea, which I hated. I never felt like I slept great with it. I am not going back there. Right. You know, I was 40 pounds heavier, I had high blood pressure and three heart meds. You know why? That’s insane to wanna go back to that kind of life.

But I recognize that a lot of my patients do have food addictions and I’m gonna call them addictions ’cause that’s what they are. They are a biochemical. Addiction. 

Ruth Soukup: Yes. Yes, yes. And then on top of that, there’s the, there’s the social factor like you were talking about, right? That if you don’t have that support and you don’t have people in your life, it’s so easy to, I mean, I, I, like, I, I would say I eat this way, you know, the bulk of the time, and I control a lot of it.

But I, there are times where you’re just kind of, you have to go with the flow or whatever, and, and it’s easy to. To fall off or to, and, and if you don’t have that constant reminder and constant support, and, and I, I get, ’cause I see this all the time in my program, right? People will, will say, oh, I listened to your podcast and I follow you on Instagram and, and I kind of get what I, you know, and I I’m doing it.

I can, I can do it on my own. And I think, yeah, you can, like what I talk about is actually not that complicated. You are right. Getting rid of sugar, you’re getting rid of, of processed foods and you’re eating more. Protein and more fat. Right? More healthy fat. Like it’s Right. I can say it in two sentences, what you need to do, but knowing it in your head and actually implementing it in your life.

Those are the two different things. That’s where a lot of times, and everybody’s different. You like, you’re, you’re the kind of person who was able to like, do it, stick with it and be like, this is how I live now. No problem. That’s right. Not everybody has that personality ability to kind of fight the fight the, because it’s.

It’s not what the rest of the world is doing. And so if you, if you need that support, like don’t be ashamed of that. Find right your community. Find the people that are gonna help keep you on track and, and find the thing that’s going to help you keep, stay on track so that. You can be successful because it does get easier.

The longer you do it, the more it becomes that’s habit. And that’s just, I mean, I can’t walk through the grocery store without, and, and look at a wall full of breakfast cereal and not think poison. Who would eat this? Right? Like, I don’t know. I don’t even get it. I don’t, I, like, there would, there’s not a world in which that enters my mouth, but that doesn’t mean that I’m 100% perfect all the time either.

And, and it didn’t happen overnight. But, 

Dr. Melanie Tidman: right. 

Ruth Soukup: Yeah. It makes me sad for people to experience the amazing results and then, and then fall off and slide off and, and yeah. Wonder how do you, so I know it, so I just got 

Dr. Melanie Tidman: an E just this morning. Got an email from a former patient that I’ve worked with over the years and, uh.

I call her my magical disappearing patient. So she’ll come and we’ll work together and she’s doing amazing. You know, when we worked together, started working together two years ago, she totally embraced the lifestyle. She went from having diabetes to no longer having diabetes, having severe fibromyalgia to no longer having.

Severe IBS that she had suffered from for years to no longer, she had lost all this weight. Her blood pressure was perfect. She had started hiking and biking. You name it, she was doing it. Her blood markers were perfect, and then she went away and disappeared. And I unheard from her until this morning and she said.

Oh my gosh. I agonized about emailing you. I am back to where I was two years ago. I totally went off everything she said, but my husband was telling me that you don’t need to eat Dr. Ted men’s diet. It’s very unhealthy. And I said, okay, unhealthy, you cured your diabetes and your IBS and your fibromyalgia and your high blood pressure, and you went from sitting on the couch to hiking and biking and, and your blood markers were fine and it was unhealthy.

I said to her, you know what you need to do? Yeah. And she emailed back and said, you are absolutely right and I do know what I need to do and thank you, you know, for, and I said, you know what, this is what I tell my patients all the time. Don’t do this to please me. Right. But also don’t get off what works for you to please somebody else.

Mm-hmm. It is not about you pleasing others, it’s about you. Valuing the life, the incredible gift of life that you have been granted, and I believe. Taking care of this wonderful vessel that you’ve been given to meet your calling in life. ’cause we all have one. It may take us a while to find out what that is, but I feel like we all have to value our lives, ourselves, our health, more than we value the opinions of others or pleasing.

Others. So you know that. And that’s easier said than done. I get it. I really do. But support, you’re right, Ruth. Support having people around you. I mean, I have friends that I’ve known for years that love to joke about how I eat, but they’re in walkers and. Kanes and I, I’m 68. I love telling how I old I am because I feel like at 68 I am in so much better shape than most of my friends who were 68, 70, whatever.

Yeah. And. And I just, they’re not teaching aerobics classes, that’s for sure. That’s right. And the ladies in my classes are in their seventies and eighties and we dance for a solid hour without stopping. No, that’s amazing. Can these naysayers around me do that? No, no. Can they power lift this morning? I power lift 80 pounds.

Can they power lift? I just did my workout. So, um, but you know, if one thing anybody hears from this interview, try to really think about am I going to not do what’s good for my health to please somebody else? Or should I value my health and my ability to be of service and to meet my calling on this earth by sticking to what works for me?

Yeah. You know, that’s so, so important. I. 

Ruth Soukup: Yeah. Yeah. It, I, I mean, it’s, it’s huge. It’s, it’s everything. And I mean, when you talk about all the things that this type of eating, basically creating metabolic health for you yourself, will. Fix almost everything that ails you. Like there’s, there are very few things, especially in modern medicine because we’ve all already figured out a cure for typhoid, right?

Like whatever people used to die from 150 years ago, they’re not, we’re not dying from those things anymore. We’re dying from heart disease. We’re dying from. From diabetes, we’re we’re, we’ve got inflammation, we’ve got leaky gut syndrome, e, everything that doesn’t feel good in your body right now or is not working in your body right now.

It’s almost all a result of this metabolic syndrome of not being metabolically healthy. And so try it. Just what, like what is the worst that can happen? You can go back to eating sugar at any time. You can go back to eating crap at any time, but. Right. If you don’t feel good, there is no reason to not try this lifestyle because it’s, that 

Dr. Melanie Tidman: is the 

Ruth Soukup: truth.

It’s so that. 

Dr. Melanie Tidman: Yeah, what did you say? What? It’s really so easy. It’s really so 

Ruth Soukup: easy. It really is. And you can eat as much as you want. You don’t have to count calories, you don’t have to be deprived. You could eat delicious food and yeah, it really truly is. It’s, you know, 

Dr. Melanie Tidman: I really blame, right? I really blame, um, modern medicine on the shift from something.

Which was the way we practiced medicine for hundreds of years. Yes. This approach, people are going, oh, it’s such a fad and keto. No, no. The ketogenic approach has been around since the early Greeks and you know, it’s been used to handle disease. Consistently throughout history, the keto, the formalized ketogenic diet.

Which is not the internet keto, you see? No, because the formalized ketogenic approach has been used in epilepsy. The first documented cases were a hundred years ago. This is not new. It’s not a fad, it’s biochemical. Another problem is that modern science, there are really two theories, two main theories of illness.

The traditional one. The old theory was that you gotta fix the soil, you gotta fix the environment for our cells so that our cells don’t mutate and develop, you know, terrible things like cancer. So it’s the soil and, and then the other. More modern. Let’s just say the current uh, scientific, medical approach is big pharma theory.

That is big pharma approach. Big pharma. Right. Can we fix it with a med? Yeah. So let’s fix it with a medication. A medication can fix it. We’re gonna do that. Yeah. The tragedy is in oncology especially, that’s cancer care. 

Ruth Soukup: Mm-hmm. 

Dr. Melanie Tidman: They were using the ketogenic approach for. Decades and decades to augment any other treatments that they were doing for cancer.

And we know that blood ketones floating through your bloodstream are toxic to cancer cells. They need glucose. In fact, your listeners will know if they’ve ever had a PET scan for cancer. What are they inject into your bloodstream. Huh? Glucose because cancer cells will wake up and go, pick me. I need it. I need it.

Mm-hmm. Well, if we use sugar, if you will, to identify cancer cells because they wake up and light up and I need it. So doesn’t it make sense? I mean, this really isn’t brain surgery that if you weren’t giving those cells any sugar. But you were giving them ketones, which are actually toxic to cancer cells.

Isn’t that, isn’t that the approach we should move towards? Should we fix the soil? Should we fix the environment for our cells first? And how do we do that? Well, we eat the diet we’ve been created to eat. Yes. Back to where our great-grandparents were who didn’t have fruit all year round. You know, fruit was right ripe in maybe September, October.

Maybe November. Why was that? Because the good Lord knew we needed to put on fat for the winter. What does fruit do? It puts on fat. No. Fat doesn’t make you fat. Sugar makes you fat. Yes. And. They didn’t have greens all year round. Well, I just planted my spinach here in New Mexico, and so yeah, I’ll have spinach until about, well, in New Mexico I’ll have it through to maybe late September.

But our ancestors didn’t eat gr, you know, vegetables all year round either. Right. So what did, what did they eat? Protein and fat. That’s what they ate.

Ruth Soukup: you lay it out so, so clearly and so. And no nonsense like that. It just, it does make perfect sense and it’s so infuriating that we’re in a system that is, I mean, you even talking about your own story, right?

Going from specialist to specialist to specialist to specialist, right? They all treat one little piece, give you a med for that thing, right? Give you a med for that symptom, give you a med for that symptom. And there’s no holistic approach. We’re not dealing with the soil, we’re just dealing with the branches, right?

And Right. It just, it’s, it’s like, why is this our world in 2025? This should not be how we are approaching it. So it does, it, it doesn’t be crazy every time I have these conversations. ’cause I think I know why, why are we in this? And then, and yet we get called like the, the crazy extremists who are Right.

Promoting a dangerous thing. Yeah. And.

Dr. Melanie Tidman: Or fed, right? Yes. 

Ruth Soukup: I’ll take the fringe baby. If that’s, I know if that’s what it takes. I’m on the fringe. Exactly. That’s why we, that’s why my health rebels around here. That’s what we call ourselves. 

Dr. Melanie Tidman: That’s right. Well, I have to tell you that there’s, there’s hope on the horizon because not, you know, it seems like not a week goes by that I don’t get a call from a friend or a friend of a friend.

Or a friend of a friend. Of a friend who says. I just saw a cardiologist who told me I need to avoid carbs and just do meat and fat. And I went, oh my gosh, who is this? Finally? And just this morning, got a call. Friend’s husband has had two heart attacks. He’s needing more stents. He went in, cardiologist said, well, I’m not gonna do the stents.

You need to change your diet. You need to avoid carbohydrates, you need to exercise. You know you need to go low carb. And I’m. And she goes, that was a cardiologist. I said, you know, since the American Academy of Cardiology has decided yeah, this is a a viable approach, the American Diabetes Association says, yeah, you want a fast way to get off your insulin.

I. Go low carb or ketogenic. I mean there it’s building 

Ruth Soukup: coming 

Dr. Melanie Tidman: and we’re starting to see it more and more coming in. Well, that’s good 

Ruth Soukup: news. That’s good news. Yes. I do have hope for the future and people gotta keep speaking that I am impressed. I am I. No, we have to go, but I am impressed when, from the part of your story where you said that the Mayo Clinic told you to.

Yeah. Look at your diet, which I don’t know if they, that’s not ne necessarily an approach that most doctors and clinics are taking, so that, that gives me a little bit of hope too. And that was the one. Well, it’s 

Dr. Melanie Tidman: interesting that the ketogenic diet was first researched at the Mayo Clinic, Mayo Clinic. So, you know, the fact that I didn’t know any of that.

Research shows how indoctrinated I was into, oh, low fat. I ate low fat for. 30 years. I don’t know. I, you know, avoided fat like the PLA plague and I was one of those Snackwells people. Oh yeah. Okay, great. I can have my sweetss, but they’re low fat. Right. Uh, didn’t matter that I was pre-diabetic, had the straight to diabetes, didn’t matter.

But yeah, there is hope. And the current study I’m recruiting for quick plug is really testing three. Nutritional approaches in Parkinson’s disease, I’m having them add in the second first phase. They do their regular junky, old, whatever, diet for eight weeks and I do some testing. Second phase, they do their regular junky, old whatever diet, and they start adding MCT oil every day.

Building, trying to build those ketones in their bloodstream. It’s crossover trial, first one of this type ever done. And then the third phase, they’re adding their MCTL to a full blown ketogenic diet. So, you know, I’m, yeah, I’m, it’s gonna be fabulous because crossover trials compare you, Ruth, to you through all three approaches, right?

I’m excited about the approaches and I finished recruiting. I’m gonna end recruitment in May 25, so hopefully get this data analyzed and published in 26. So, 

Ruth Soukup: oh, I love it. I love it. Yeah, I’m excited to hear all about it. And then, this was just so fascinating and thank you. If people wanna look at, look into you more or look into the Colorado Parkinson Foundation, which you represent, um, where can they, where can they find you?

And we’ll make sure to link in the show notes as well. 

Dr. Melanie Tidman: Wonderful. So Colorado Parkinson Foundation, notice there’s no S in Parkinson. When you go to their website, click on study at the top and you will see every research presentation that I’ve done for them and the recruitment presentation for the current study.

And of course you can find, uh, my. Our, my team, our five published studies, you know, uh, on the internet, they’re all out there. They’re all open access, so you can read ’em for yourself. So we’ll see if we can get those added to the show notes as well. That sounds 

Ruth Soukup: great. Thank you for having me. I’ve enjoyed our chat.

Yeah. This was fantastic. Melanie, or Dr. Tedman, I should say. Thank you so much and um, yeah, just thank you for the work that you’re doing and, and, and continue to do. It’s so important and, and I’m just so thank you, grateful to you for being here. Well, I am 

Dr. Melanie Tidman: blessed to be able to do the work and to speak with people like you who are also out there fighting the good fight for, for health, and I appreciate what you do as well.

Thank you so much. 

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